


Unravel Me (Agents of Shield)

by ElementalWinter



Series: Unravel Series [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other, POV Female Character, POV Lesbian Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:00:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 34,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElementalWinter/pseuds/ElementalWinter
Summary: {Unravel My Soul}In which Evelyn May joins a team of misfits on their borderline suicidal missions into the unknown, all while trying to forget her own past. Family isn't always what it seems.Season 1x1-1x3Part 1 of The Unravel Series.I do not own Marvel or Agents of Shield in any way. The only thing I own is Evelyn and her story. All other characters and stories are the property of Marvel and Disney.
Series: Unravel Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124033
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	1. Prologue

S.H.I.E.L.D Safe House

Location: Classified

When Evelyn May was given the suggestion of time off, she had envisioned it as a chance for relaxation after the last few stressful months. She hadn’t expected it to be so boring.

Evelyn May was sat on the couch, in the same position she had been in for the last four hours. Her breathing was deep and calming, something her mother had taught her when she was barely old enough to speak.

It wasn’t that Evelyn was an impatient person, in fact, she prided herself on her sense of patience during missions, but this wasn’t a mission, and her patience was running thin.

She was exhausted, though she would never admit it to anybody. Her last ‘training session’ had drained her both emotionally and physically. And, while she was extremely bored, she had neither the energy nor drive to get up and do anything about it.

She shut her eyes, the old wooden shack of the S.H.I.E.L.D safe house falling away. She imagined her home, but not her home. The one she had shared with her mother and Andrew, where she had felt the safest. It had been years since she had set foot inside that house, but the images came back as vibrant as if it had only been yesterday.

The dining room table, the flower vase at the bottom of the stairs, it was all still there in her mind.

She could see her old bedroom, decorated to fit the style of a rebellious teenage S.H.I.E.L.D cadet. She smiled at the thought of her horrific sense of style and decoration.

Next, her mind was filled with a scene she had seen for years, but had never been able to put a name too. A wide-open field, flowers and the faint sound of a child's laughter. The field was Evelyn’s safe space. She went to it in her mind whenever she could, to focus her mind or calm herself. But now, it was just to keep herself from punching a hole in the wall.

Director Fury would not be happy if she came back from leave with a broken hand.

She was jolted from her happiness as her wristwatch vibrated with a communication. She lifted her arm to read the I.D of whoever was interrupting her silence.

“Maria.” She greeted immediately, slipping into her stern agent persona.

“We need you to come in.”

“Wow, no small talk or anything, just cutting right to the chase.” Evelyn quipped.

“I know you have had a very stressful go of it lately, but we have a mission for you. I think you’ll like it.” Maria ignored her quip, as usual.

“What’s the op? Solo or team? Who is in charge?” If Maria was gonna cut straight to the chase, Evelyn would too.

“Multiple ops, team mission, and a surprise.” Maria read back slowly, drawing out each answer.

“Very covert,” Evelyn remarked. “I’m in. Should I report to your office?”

“No, report to The Bus. I’ll send you the coordinates and the specifics of the mission.”

“Done. Give me four hours.”

“Oh and by the way, sorry for interrupting your vacation.” Maria poked.

“No problem, I was about to ram my head against the wall repeatedly anyways.”

The line was cut and a gentle crackle filled the air around Evelyn. She didn’t have much of anything to pack. Being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., she had learned not to bring much with her. The less she had, the less could be traced back to her, and the less to pack up when it was time to leave.

She sighed and turned to gather up her ‘supplies’.


	2. Part 1: Pilot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapters will get longer! The first two are short but the rest will be much longer.

Part 1: Pilot

Evelyn always found something so calming in the preparation before a mission. Maybe it was the fact that prep meant a plan, and a plan usually meant success. Usually.

She hadn’t known what to expect, Maria hadn’t given her much to go on, but whatever she had envisioned in her head, this was definitely not it.

A hacker group, known as the Rising Tide had somehow gotten into S.H.I.E.L.D and was now releasing classified information to the public. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the latest leak.

It hadn’t come from S.H.I.E.L.D but a singular member of the Rising Tide. An explosion, possibly a bomb, had gone off in a building and a man had jumped out of a burning building carrying a woman, fallen almost 10 stories and had run away like nothing had happened.

He left quite a dent in the pavement though.

S.H.I.E.L.D needed to get to the man first, before another, less kind, organization beat them to it. The man’s entire future depended on how quickly S.H.I.E.L.D could act.


	3. Pilot (Chapter 1)

Evelyn flicked her sunglasses down and pulled her small bag of supplies tighter against her shoulder. She walked with purpose, not fazed by the dozens of agents milling around her.

She couldn’t help the whistle of appreciation that passed her lips as The Bus fully came into view. What an odd name, ‘The Bus’. Especially because it was not, in fact, a bus, but a plane. The sleek black paint reflected dangerously and Evelyn found herself eyeing the design.

It was beautifully built, obviously meant for long trips and designed to be as aerodynamic as possible. The engines were top of the line and made for speed, like the rest of the bird.

She walked without delay to the ramp that led into the belly of the beast. She scanned her environment periodically. It was a habit that she had picked up, or more, been trained into. Some may have called it paranoia, but her mother always said, ‘It’s better to be paranoid than dead.’ And Evelyn quite agreed with that. She really liked being alive… sometimes. If she hadn’t been scanning the area, she never would have noticed the man that seemed quite out of his element also walking towards the plane.

He held a duffel bag close and walked with the same swagger that Evelyn had seen on every top-of-their-class op agent. He made it to the jet ramp moments before Evelyn did. He didn’t even seem to notice her, or if he did, didn’t acknowledge her.

Evelyn quickened her step to hop up the side of the ramp and follow the man closely. Evelyn felt herself smiling as a familiar pair of voices reached her ears. She stopped short and leaned against one of the S.H.I.E.L.D SUV’s. She pulled her sunglasses off her face and stowed them in her pocket.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, watch it! That’s the night-night gun!” A Scottish voice had Evelyn smirking and crossing her arms.

“Well, it’s on my stuff.” The second of the two, a British voice, countered immediately. “And it doesn’t work. There is no way we are calling it the night-night gun!”

Evelyn watched as the female, the British one, chased after the Scottish male into the built-in lab attached to the ‘garage’ as Evelyn would call it.

“Nonlethal, heavy stopping power, break up under the subcutaneous tissue-” The Scottish man informed in a matter-of-fact tone.

This was obviously a fight they had had before and Evelyn watched as the woman cut him off.

“With only .1 microlitres of Dendrotoxin.” She sighed. “I’m not Hermione, I can’t make instant paralysis with that!”

Evelyn scoffed. Could have fooled me, she thought with a glance back towards the man, who was slowly entering the lab, chasing after the two scientists.

It was obvious to Evelyn that the man was slowly getting frustrated as the two began to speak over each other.

“You should have run the specs by me before building the molds!” The woman started.

“The bullets are hollow. It’s a marvel I can keep them from breaking apart in the chamber.”

“Or used a higher caliber round or read a book.”

“Have you ever heard of physics or – uh what’s the other one? Inertia.”

“It’s not particularly difficult.”

The man with the duffel bag dropped it with an audible thud, interrupting the squabbling pair. He sighed heavily and Evelyn saw that his shoulders visibly slumped. He obviously was not a team player.

“Fitz-Simmons?” He sighed.

The woman lifted a finger to point across the table that they had been fighting over to point at the man. “Fitz.”

Fitz lifted his finger and in turn pointed to the woman. “Simmons.” He sighed heavily. “I’m engineering, she’s biochem. Are you Agent Ward?”

Agent Ward dug into his pocket and pulled out a comm receiver. “Coulson said I would need my comm receiver encoded.”

Fitz hurried around the table to snatch the receiver out of the agent’s hand. He carried it to a table before placing it down and taking a hammer to it. The receiver was smashed into little tiny pieces.

“It’s new…” Ward sighed heavily.

Evelyn watched with amusement when Simmons took Ward’s head in her hands and forced a sort of swab into his mouth. She drew it around the inside of his cheek before removing it and packaging it tightly.

“So, are you excited to be coming with us on our journey into mystery?” Simmons asked, somewhat sarcastically.

“It’s like Christmas.” Ward replied dryly.

Evelyn chuckled and pushed herself off the car. “You don’t have to torture me like that do you, Simmons?” She asked with a wry smile in Ward’s direction.

“Evelyn! Or is it Agent Evelyn, or Agent May?” Simmons joked.

“For now, it’s just Evelyn. Agent May is my mom, makes me feel old when you call me that.”

“We have your DNA already, don’t need it to sync the ear comms.” Fitz piped up from his corner where he sat on the computer. “It’s nice to see you again, Evelyn.”

Evelyn tipped her head and smiled at the two scientists.

She opened her mouth to say something when the squealing of tires had her whirling around. She felt her jaw drop as a beautiful red corvette rolled into the garage. When the purr of the engine shut off, Evelyn felt herself longing to hear it again. 

It was a nice car.

Out of the car stepped Agent Coulson and Evelyn felt her smile growing. He pulled his glasses off his face and pocketed them swiftly. A man approached the car and Agent Coulson’s voice went low with warning.

“Don’t touch Lola.”

"He calls it a girl's name.” Fitz chuckled and turned away to retreat back into the lab.

“Agent Ward, Agent May Junior,” Coulson sent a joking smile towards Evelyn, “Follow me.”

Evelyn clasped her hands behind her back and followed Agent Ward as Coulson led them up a spiral staircase. She didn’t really listen to their conversation, nor did she participate in it, but she kept her eyes scanning the ‘common room’ of the plane.

Evelyn tried to hide her smile when Ward completely shut down Coulson’s joke. He sent a desperate look back towards Evelyn and she just shrugged.

“That was a… joke… the first part of a joke.” Coulson tried to explain. “I’m not gonna tell it now.”

A voice from off to the side had Evelyn spinning on her heel, her eyes widening and her smile growing if that was possible.

“If you plan to unpack, do it fast. Wheels up in five.”

Evelyn watched the woman with a longing look, but she didn’t make a move towards her. Professionalism and all that.

The woman handed over a pile of papers to Coulson and he took them without a second thought.

“We may have a hit on one of the Rising Tide’s routing points.” She informed swiftly.

“Good.” Coulson nodded. “We have some catching up to do.”

The woman turned on her heel, sparing only a moment's glance at Evelyn before continuing back the way she had come.

“Was that who I thought it was?” Ward questioned, almost breathlessly.

“She’s just the pilot.” Agent Coulson supplied.

Evelyn smirked and crossed her hands over her chest. She liked this. The look on Ward’s face was priceless and she made a mental note to capture it forever.

“Melinda May, is just the pilot?” Ward gasped. “Come on sir, what angle are you really playing?”

Coulson ignored Ward’s question and instead turned to address Evelyn.

“By now I hope you’ve read your debrief, about what we are going to look at.”

Evelyn nodded, recalling the facts that she had read on the way over. Possible powered individual, connection to the Rising Tide, blah blah blah, help the powered person.

“Good. You better stow your gear.” Coulson instructed.

Evelyn nodded and turned to hurry back towards where she had seen the beds. She dropped her bag into an empty ‘room’, (it was really a glorified closet), and smiled. She felt comfortable there. She had spent enough time in a metaphorical closet that being in a real one felt safe.

Did you miss me, I’m home! She thought to the closet.

The room was nice, exactly what she would have expected from a mobile S.H.I.E.L.D base. It was barren, like most dorms at the academy.

She hurried from the room and down the hall that Melinda May had disappeared down. She pulled open the door at the end of the hall and was greeted with the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.

The co-pilot's seat, empty, waiting for her. A seat, right beside her mother.

She didn’t say anything, just slipped into the co-pilot's seat silently. Even though her mother and her had been apart for quite some time, there was no need for a greeting or a hug or any of that mother-daughter stuff.

Instead, it was as if a silent signal passed between them and Evelyn primed the engines for take-off. To Evelyn, flying beside her mother, and communicating without needing words, was just as good as a hug.

~+~

It took quite some time after takeoff for either woman to say anything. And, to the surprise of both women, it was Melinda who spoke first.

“How was your vacation?”

Evelyn regarded her mother for a moment. Melinda didn’t exactly do small talk. Evelyn had been prepared to spend the entire flight in silence.

“Is vacation supposed to make you want to ram your head into the wall out of boredom?” Evelyn tried to joke. She didn’t think it was very successful, but Melinda smiled anyway.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Melinda commented. “You weren’t exactly in the right mind when I last saw you.”

Evelyn clenched her jaw and lowered her gaze. Her entire body went rigid in her chair. “Yeah, I wonder why.” She half snarled.

Melinda cast a worried gaze towards her daughter. “I just meant that I’m glad you’re back, with me.”

Evelyn looked up sharply, that didn’t sound like her mother.

Her mother loved her, Evelyn knew that. Melinda would do anything, sacrifice anything, for her. But, they had never had an overly sharing relationship like most families. They shared hugs and cuddles, mostly before missions, but they were not often open about their emotions. Melinda only became so emotional when something had happened.

Evelyn didn’t mention the fact that Melinda was acting clingy. “I’m glad I’m back with you. I could use some people I care about and trust around me right now.”

Melinda smiled, but didn’t reach over to comfort her daughter in any way. Evelyn didn’t need that.

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence that lasted the rest of the flight.


	4. Pilot (Chapter 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a short chapter and I'm sorry. Just some friendship between Fitz-Simmons and Evelyn.

It had been less than two hours since Coulson and Ward had left the plane, but Evelyn was already feeling like she should have gone with them. They didn’t need her, she knew that, but she felt cooped up in the plane.

She leaned over the railing, looking down into the garage. She could hear Fitz-Simmons discussing science in their lab right below her own feet.

She debated, not for the first time, whether she should join Fitz-Simmons downstairs.

“You’re gonna go stir-crazy if you don’t interact with someone.” Melinda’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“It’s not that, Mom.” Evelyn sighed. She wanted to continue, to spill her heart out to her mother. She knew her mother would listen and help her in any way she could, but the last thing that Evelyn needed right now was more sympathy.

“I know it’s hard.” Melinda sighed. “I don’t know what you went through and I will never understand, but I do know that Fitz and Simmons are trustworthy. I wouldn’t have let them on this bus if they weren’t.”

“That’s what everybody said about the others.” Evelyn sighed. She crossed her arms and slouched forward, putting her weight onto the railing.

Melinda didn’t reply and Evelyn cast a glance over her shoulder. Her mother had disappeared, silently. She had most likely retreated back to the cabin, her favourite place on any plane.

Evelyn sighed and, against her better judgment, pushed herself from the railing and descended the spiral staircase into the garage.

She knocked on the lab door and watched as it opened with a hiss of air.

“Am I interrupting something?” Evelyn questioned softly.

“Evelyn!” Simmons greeted. “Absolutely not, we are still getting everything set up.”

Evelyn sat herself on the table in the middle of the room, eyeing the two scientists wearily. She bit her lower lip and clenched and unclenched her hands. She avoided eye contact with the science duo.

She didn’t want to live like this. She didn’t want to be afraid of the people standing next to her. She wanted to be free. The same freedom she felt in that green meadow. She pictured it now in her head. She felt as if she were flying, the green grass of the meadow whizzing by, but her feet never touched the ground.

It was an exhilarating feeling, flying across the ground. She didn’t need a plane or anything else in that place, she just needed herself.

“Hey, Evelyn, you listening?” Fitz snapped her out of her daydream.

“Huh, wha’?” She mumbled half-heartedly.

“Simmons and I were just discussing the first time we met you!” Fitz chuckled at the memory. “You remember that don’t you?”

Evelyn knew what they were doing, they were trying to reminisce about the old times, show how much they cared. Evelyn didn’t need to hear the words, but she smiled at the memory anyways.

“I’m surprised you stuck around after that.” Simmons chided. “It’s not the best first impression when the first thing you see is Fitz almost putting a hole through the school.”

“If I remember, Jemma,” Evelyn pointed at the woman with one finger. “It was you who said that the calculations were complete.”

“Well, I’m a biochemist, Fitz is the mechanical expert! He should have known something wasn’t right.”

“Oh yeah, blame it on me why don’t ya?” Fitz grumbled irritably.

Evelyn sighed, being swept away with the memory. She didn’t like to remember her past, didn't find any use in it, but she couldn’t help the floodgates that were opened with one single conversation.

She remembered the look on Fitz’s face when the machine he was working on exploded into a beam of lasers directed right at Evelyn’s head. She remembered the look of horror on Simmons’ face as she rushed to cover any evidence of damage. But, most importantly, she remembered the feeling of companionship immediately. There had been something about the two scientists that had had Evelyn smiling from the first second.

“You look a little pale,” Fitz commented from a few feet away, where he was packaging what looked to be drones into a briefcase. His comment snapped Evelyn from her trip down memory lane. “And that’s coming from me.”

“I’m still getting used to the fact that I have actual people around me.” She sighed and cleared her throat, squaring her shoulders self consciously.

“We heard about what happened. It must have been hard.” Simmons prodded gently.

“It was.” Evelyn deadpanned, hoping to block any more questions. It worked, as Simmons took a half step backwards and looked embarrassed. Evelyn felt guilty and bit her lip. “I just find trust to be something I value more, since it happened.”

Fitz and Simmons shared a glance and stared at Evelyn with sympathy. It made Evelyn sick to see the sympathy flash across the duo’s faces. She didn’t need sympathy, she needed something to do. She needed to know that she could trust them.

“I apologize to you both, I know we go way back, but I need to relearn that I can trust you. Apparently, history doesn’t mean much to a lot of people. Trust isn’t something I give anymore, it has to be earned.”

Fitz and Simmons smiled at her, sharing an equally understanding gaze.

“Of course.”

“Absolutely.”


	5. Pilot (Chapter 3)

Evelyn eyed the security feed from the conference room with a narrowed gaze. Coulson and Ward had returned a few minutes ago with a woman with a bag over her head. They had brought the woman into the interrogation room and had removed the bag from her head.

Evelyn bit her lip and eyed the woman. “She’s pretty.” She remarked without a thought.

The scrutinizing glare she received from her mother had her rolling her shoulders.

“What? I’m not allowed to look now?”

“She’s a criminal.”

“I know she is a criminal, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think she’s pretty.” Evelyn defended herself. “Even Fitz has to admit that she’s pretty.”

Fitz rubbed the back of his neck nervously and cleared his throat.

Evelyn smirked and crossed her arms across her chest. “I’m allowed to have thoughts.”

Melinda May narrowed her eyes and regarded Evelyn with a calculating glare. Evelyn matched the glare and held her mother's stare with a cold one of her one.

The corner of Melinda’s lips curled up into a hint of a smile and Evelyn felt a surge of victory flash within her. She was one of only a few that could really make Melinda smile. And she relished in every one she received.

“Coulson wants us to check out the bombing site.” Simmons piped up from her computer. “He wants to know what we find.”

“Evelyn, Coulson wants you to stay and monitor the interrogation from here.” May pointed towards the screen with a stern look.

Evelyn’s shoulders drooped. She had hoped to get out into the field, stretch her muscles and her mind. However, it seemed that she was forever cursed to wander the halls of this damn plane.

I’m sorry baby, she thought to the plane, you’re a good girl.

“Yeah, I’m on it.”

~+~

Evelyn wasn’t really paying attention to the interrogation, but she still kept an ear focused on the screen in front of her. She had a hidden ability to multitask that often baffled those around her. She had her eyes closed and had let her mind wander to her beautiful field. But, it wasn’t beautiful anymore. The meadow was in flames, burning and smouldering with a passion rarely seen in natural fires.

Evelyn felt lost. Her safe space, the only one that she had everywhere she went, was being taken away from her and she was powerless to do anything.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus. Of course, you’d be covering up Centipede!” The girl's voice echoed through the room, snapping Evelyn from her mini nightmare.

She narrowed her eyes in on the screen and crossed her arms. Centipede? She had never heard of anything like that and by the looks on Ward and Coulson’s faces, they hadn’t either.

“Holy no way.” The girl laughed with an ever-growing smirk. “You don’t know what that is. Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal and I beat you with a laptop I won in a bet?”

Evelyn had to admit that the girl was good. The Rising Tide had been an ever-growing thorn in S.H.I.E.L.D’s side for years. But this girl was special. Not just any member of the Rising Tide could hack into S.H.I.E.L.D with a laptop and a van.

“You need to think about your friend. We’re not the only ones interested in people with powers.” Coulson offered. “We’d like to contain him, yeah. The next guy will want to exploit him and the guy after that will want to dissect him.”

Ward circled the table to stand next to the girl, Skye.

“What is Centipede?” He growled dangerously.

“Centipede, it was chatter on the web and then, gone. I traced the access point MAC address to that building.” Skye scoffed as if she couldn’t believe that he had just asked that question.

“What were you after?” Ward pushed.

“The truth.” She deadpanned. “What are you after?”

Ward didn’t miss a beat and he quipped back easily. “World peace. You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up.”

Skye looked offended by Ward’s words and Evelyn thought for a second that she was going to turn around and punch him. Silently, Evelyn was cheering her on.

“But you’re never around for the fallout. People keep secrets for a reason, Skye.”

Evelyn sighed. They were getting nowhere. Skye would never crack under whatever pressure Ward was giving. She needed an incentive, something to make her cooperate. Evelyn’s eyes glowed as she finally understood what Skye was searching for.

Skye needed to trust them.

~+~

Evelyn abandoned her post monitoring the conversation between the two agents and the glorified I.T woman. She didn’t pause in her step as she strode into the common room and stopped by a panel on the wall.

She opened the panel with a quick flick of her wrist and removed the black suitcase from its confinement.

She had barely begun to take it out of the case when Coulson strode in with Ward on his heels. Coulson’s eyes lit up when he saw the open briefcase on the table in front of Evelyn.

“She’s an asset.” He remarked to Ward.

“She is such an ass- wait… asset?” Ward froze in place.

“We don’t know anything about her.” Coulson smiled, obviously enjoying the mystery. Evelyn grinned too, unable to resist Phil Coulson’s childish delight. “Do you appreciate how often that happens? That never happens!”

Evelyn eyed Coulson carefully as he took the device from her hand. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but she couldn’t help but be paranoid. 

Her mother would be so proud.

“We need what she knows.”

Evelyn swapped a gaze with Coulson and with a small nod, she took point and led the way back to the cell.

~+~

When Evelyn entered the cell, she found herself eyeing the woman in front of her appreciatively. She had a light smile on her lips and a hand on her hip. She tried to appear as non-threatening as possible.

“What? You couldn’t crack me so you thought you needed a ladies touch?” Skye quipped easily.

Evelyn smirked. “Oh no, I’m not here to interrogate you. I’m just here to observe, and possibly judge.”

Skye opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off as Coulson held up a vial of a blue liquid.

“This is QNB-T16. It’s the top shelf martini of sodium pentothal derivatives.” He loaded the vial into the injector gun and held it lovingly against his chest. “It’s a brand new and extremely potent truth drug. Don’t worry, the effects only last about an hour.”

Ward circled the table once more, his hands clasped together across his stomach and a dark smile on his face.

Evelyn shuddered. If she hadn’t known Ward, she probably would have taken him for a psychopath.

“Then you’ll have a nice little nap. And we’ll have all the answers to our-” Coulson turned to Ward and stabbed the injector into his arm instead of Skye’s. “Hey!”

Coulson and Evelyn responded at the same time with the same sarcastic sympathetic tone of voice.

“I’m sorry, did that hurt?”

“Aw, Muffin, did that hurt you?”

“No. But you’ve both lost your mind, you should never do that to a member of your team.” Ward denied swiftly.

Too quickly, Evelyn thought.

“And yes, it did hurt a little bit.”

There it was.

“But I always try to mask my pain in front of beautiful women.” He swapped gazes between Skye and Evelyn.

Thanks, dude, but not my type. Evelyn thought with a grimace.

“Because I think it makes me look more masculine- my god this stuff works fast!” Ward collapsed into a chair with a sharp exhale of breath.

“Don’t trust us? Ask him anything you want.” Coulson informed Skye.

Evelyn turned on her heel and led the way out of the room, blocking out Ward’s cries of protest. She waited with her hands clasped behind her back for Coulson to shut the door.

“That was fun, but do you think I could get my hands on another bottle of that serum? I’ve always wondered what went on in my mom's head.”

Coulson shot her an amused look but shook his head. “You and me both.”


	6. Pilot (Chapter 4)

Evelyn didn’t consider herself to be someone that was easily amused, but there was something about an agent, lying face down and drooling onto a table in sleep that Evelyn found to be hilarious. There was also something hilarious about said agent having smacked his head when he suddenly collapsed in his seat.

She had learned pretty quickly that Agent Coulson could be spontaneous, but that every action he made had a reason. She was just glad that he hadn’t stabbed her with the truth serum, that wouldn’t have ended well. Needles had never really been her favourite thing. 

She cast a glance towards Coulson and watched as he palmed something on the table in front of him.

The door to the conference room as Evelyn liked to call it hissed open and Evelyn whirled on her heels, already palming her hidden blade.

She watched nervously as Skye wandered into the room with a wide-eyed deer in the headlights look on her face. She didn’t seem that nervous about being on a plane with trained killers.

“Did Ward give you anything?” Coulson muttered, never moving his gaze from the table in front of him.

“He told me he’s been to Paris, but never really seen it and that he wishes you had stayed in Tahiti.” 

“It’s a-” Coulson started, but Evelyn cut him off.

“Let me guess… a magical place!” She breathed wistfully. Skye turned her gaze towards Evelyn.

“He also said that he wishes you hadn’t gone through-”

Evelyn took a threatening step forward. “You’re new here, so I’ll give you one free pass. We don’t discuss what happened.”

“Okay, okay! Jeez, didn’t realize it was a touchy subject.” Skye rolled her eyes. “Ward doesn’t like your style. I kinda think I do.”

“What about this?” Coulson swept his hand along the table and the big screen was suddenly decorated with a news highlight.

Evelyn crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. She hadn’t seen the reports yet.

“...remains in critical condition. Employees could not identify the attacker, but security footage confirms that this man assaulted the factory foreman before damaging thousands of dollars’ worth of company property.” The news lady read in a monotone voice.

A picture of what looked to be the same man with superpowers as at the bombing flashed across the screen.

Evelyn watched as Skye’s face fell with confusion.

“This is… wrong. This is not the guy I met… he was… he just needs a break.” Skye offered meekly.

Evelyn turned to focus her attention on Skye. She took in her expression and the way her shoulders slumped and felt her own shoulders drooping slightly. This girl wasn’t a threat. She was a victim.

“Then give him one.” Coulson pushed gently. “What do you have?”

Skye looked from Coulson to the screen, back to Coulson and then to Evelyn. She bit her lip nervously and Evelyn sent her a comforting smile. Skye returned it without a moment's hesitation.

Dear God, this girl was cute.

Skye reached into her pocket and removed what looked to be a driver's license. Evelyn raised her eyebrows at Skye and scoffed audibly.

“Petty theft? Can I add that to the list, Ms. Criminal?”

“You keep a list?”

Evelyn shook her head and leaned back against the wall. “We keep a lot of lists. You are definitely on a few.”

Skye placed the driver's license down onto the table and watched with awe as it came to life and scanned the license before her eyes. The computer beeped and transferred the information to the main screen for everybody to see.

“Evelyn, call everybody in here. We all need to see this.”

~+~

Evelyn had gravitated to the back of the room, away from the growing crowd of people in front of the screen. It wasn’t that she was afraid of crowds, or the people in them, she just wasn’t a fan of the physical contact that came with it. She was perfectly happy to hang on the edges and just listen.

“Mike Peterson, factory worker, married, one kid.” Coulson read from his tablet. “Gets injured, gets laid off, wife jumps ship. Good guy, bad breaks.”

“Best guess is, somebody tells him they can make him strong again, make him super.” Evelyn supplied.

Melinda cast a look over her shoulder and nodded at Evelyn. “Who has the tech to do that?” She wondered aloud, turning back to the screen. “And why would they want to?”

“Fitz, what do we have from the security footage before the blast?”

Fitz took the tablet from Coulson and with a few taps, fed a grainy image onto the large screen.

Evelyn immediately analyzed it, looking for background details, faces, expressions or any hidden shadows or lens flares. She came up empty pretty quickly and her mouth twisted into a frown. It was just a picture of two men, one angry, one not.

“What are we seeing?” Melinda asked slowly, her eyes roaming the picture.

“Well, the man is angry at the other man.” Fitz pointed out.

Evelyn crossed her arms and sent a glare towards Fitz. Everybody in the room seemed to have a matching ‘no shit sherlock’ expression on their faces.

“The data is very corrupt.” Simmons interrupted, trying to excuse Fitz.

“Yeah, like Cold War Russia corrupt.” Fitz sighed heavily. “I can’t sync the timecode without the-”

Skye pushed herself off the wall to interrupt Fitz. “What if you had the audio?” Evelyn turned a judging gaze on Skye. “I was running surveillance on the lab. I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast. The digital files in my van. There’s too much background noise for me but maybe you can-”

This time it was Simmon’s turn to cut off the speaker.

“You can clean that up, can’t you?” She leaned her head close to Fitz’s. “Find a sync point and use cross-field variation to find-”

Evelyn felt her mind dripping as each second of science passed between the two.

“But I can’t scrub for expression when the Vit-C is all-”

“Well, is there a chrominance subcarrier-?”

“Yeah, attached to the back porch- brilliant!” Fitz exclaimed.

Fitz and Simmons proceeded to speak over one another as they often did.

“Um, that audio would be great. Thank you very much.”

“We will take that audio, please.”

Evelyn blinked, thoroughly confused. She shared a glance with her mother and felt a small smile tugging at her lips. Her mother looked just as confused as she felt.

“Your van is here, but you were right, we couldn’t break your decryption.” Coulson pointed out.

Skye gained a cocky smile and crossed her arms across her chest. “The decryption is coupled to the GPS. Get my van back to that alley and then I’m in business.”

“Agent May will accompany you.” Coulson offered.

Evelyn looked up and tilted her head. “Which one?” She joked.

“Which one is the getaway driver?” Coulson shot back.

Evelyn felt her smirk growing and turned to her mother. “You haven’t seen me driving in a while. Maybe I could replace you someday.”

“Yeah, dream on.” Melinda deadpanned and turned, laying a hand on Skye’s shoulders. She led the woman out of the room.

“Agent May Junior, why don’t you see if you can be of help down in the lab with Fitz-Simmons?”

Coulson had a way of making an order sound like a request and had Evelyn not been used to his way of communicating, she probably would have insisted she stay and keep him company.

Instead, she simply dipped her head respectfully and exited the room.


	7. Pilot (Chapter 5)

{There is a trigger warning in effect for this chapter. There is a depiction of a panic attack, self-harm and PTSD. I am not trying to make fun of or make light of any of these things. They are all serious and real illnesses that can affect anybody. There will be a line of asterisks (**) where the scene starts and finishes, so you can skip it if you would like. Do be warned that there will be a running theme of anxiety, panic and PTSD within Evelyn for this entire book.}

Evelyn didn’t understand a lot of the computer parts that Fitz-Simmons did, but she was willing to bet that it couldn’t be much different from a plane.

Each piece would have a specific function, and the next piece needed the previous one. If done properly, each individual piece would work together, creating something that shouldn’t be possible. 

It was like a puzzle. The pieces created the puzzle.

Fitz had connected Skye’s call to the lab so that it could be heard no matter where anybody was.

“Audio file should be coming through. It’s not condensed so it may take a while.” Skye’s voice crackled over the intercom.

That, Evelyn understood. Waiting was nothing new.

“So, uh, when you get back I’ll, uh, show you my thing.” Fitz spoke and regretted his words the moment they left his mouth.

Evelyn snickered and tried to hide it behind a cough.

“A thing, it’s… it’s my hardware.” Fitz was slowly getting flustered. “I mean my equipment!”

Evelyn walked towards Fitz and pressed the button to end the call. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah… hang up.” He sighed.

Evelyn felt a smile growing on her lips and she shook her head.

“I told everybody that you thought she was pretty, and I’m right!” She smirked in triumph.

Suddenly, the sound of a drill whirring had Evelyn whirling around, her hands closing around an empty gun holster. She tensed and her eyes widened considerably.

She gulped and breathed heavily, trying to bring herself back.

“So the alien metal you found wasn’t the explosion?” Coulson broke through Evelyn’s haze.

******{Skip if you want}******

Evelyn inhaled nervously and spun on her heels, leaving the lab and leaned against one of the SUV’s. She screwed her eyes shut and clasped her right arm in her left hand.

She clawed desperately at her skin, leaving inflamed and angry red marks in her path. Even the pain wasn’t enough to bring her back this time. She speared her nails into her arm and dug with all her might. She hissed as blood welled up around her fingers and a broken sigh left her lips.

She relaxed under the pain, her posture slumping forward.

Removing her fingers from her skin was easier and easier every time it happened. It had gotten to the point where she no longer felt the pain or worried about the blood. It was the chemicals she craved.

It probably wasn’t healthy, she knew that, to cause herself to bleed and crave the pain that came with it. But, it was the only thing that helped during an episode. Before, going to her mind meadow had been enough to calm her, but now, it was getting harder and harder.

The hiss of the lab door opening had Evelyn spinning around and pulling her sleeves down to hide the welling blood. She blinked nervously and took a calming breath, able to fall into her persona easily.

******{End}******

“Now, using motion estimation, Bayesian Inference, a beam splitter and a little diffraction theory, our mystery man… appears.” Fitz was saying as he left the lab.

Evelyn tilted her head and watched as a bunch of lightsticks around the room powered up and projected a 3D image of the lab before the explosion.

“It’s like magic. But it’s- it’s science.” Fitz sighed wistfully.

Ward, who Evelyn had failed to notice, took a step towards the hologram. He looked it over closely. 

“It’s like something out of Star Wars.” Evelyn joked.

“Explosives in the case?” Ward asked, ignoring Evelyn’s joke.

Fitz typed something into his computer for a second before the hologram began to move, syncing itself with Skye’s audio file.

“...Please calm down. Just let me check your vitals.” The scientist man pleaded.

“I feel fine. I want to feel more!” The angry man holding the case raised his voice. “Where’s the doctor? Where is she!?” He was getting more and more agitated as the seconds passed.

“I-If you don’t settle down, I’ll have to sedate you.” The scientist stuttered.

The angry man turned and picked up a chair, bringing it crashing to the ground as if to emphasize his next statement. “Where is she!?”

The hologram stopped and Evelyn was left with a slightly parted jaw and a head full of questions. “Did you see that on his arm?”

Fitz rewound to the part where the angry man was first lifting up the chair. Ward took a step closer to get a better view of the man’s arm.

“What does that look like to you?” Coulson asked.

The man had a device grafted to his skin. Inside was a yellowish-orange liquid.

“A centipede.” Ward sighed heavily.

“It’s an intravenous filter for his blood!” Simmons exclaimed, rushing from her lab. “This goo, sir- it’s very similar to the serum that Dr. Erskine developed in the ’40s for the-”

This piqued Evelyn’s interest. Captain America was connected to their mission, how cool was that?

“Super soldiers.” Coulson finished for Simmons.

“I’m reading alien metal, gamma radiation, the serum, every known source of superpowers thrown in a blender.” Simmons was smiling as she spoke, as if she didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

“We need to see the origin of the blast.” Evelyn pointed out.

Coulson nodded solemnly. “Run it back from the last point recorded.”

Fitz tapped against his tablet for a few seconds and the hologram jumped forward to show the point milliseconds before the camera was destroyed.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and watched with unguarded curiosity as Fitz ran the tape backward slowly. She watched as the pieces of what she thought had been a bomb slowly returned to their original place and she felt a gasp escape her lips.

The man was glowing.

Not like a lens flare or any trick of the camera, this man was actually glowing. Bright orange lines had appeared on his skin.

“Extremis.” Coulson sighed. “It’s new, completely unstable.”

“Poor man didn’t bring an explosive.” Evelyn whispered breathily.

“And Mike has the same thing in his system.”

Evelyn turned her wide gaze on Simmons. She had already guessed that Centipede was what gave this man strength and had a theory that it had also made Mike strong, but no one had told her that she was right.

“And judging by his strength level, a lot more.” Coulson added.

“So… any minute now, Mike is gonna…” Fitz trailed off, a deep expression plastered to his face.

Evelyn found herself fidgeting with her hands nervously.

“He’ll take out anyone in a two-block radius.” Simmons whispered, fear causing her voice to crack.

Evelyn spun around and rushed from the garage, up the stairs and towards her room. She slammed the door shut behind her and collapsed onto her bed. 

Today was not a good day.

~+~

Evelyn had always thought of herself as a planner. She had never gone into a fight without a plan. Now, whether that plan stuck or went to shit, that was the question.

Just because there was a plan in place, Evelyn had never let herself become too reliant on it. As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, there was always going to be a time when she needed to throw the plan out the window and go off-book.

Adaptability was a skill listed on her resume after all.

But, this time, Evelyn had no plan. Nobody did. Extremis was unfamiliar territory to everybody.

Ward was leaning against the table in the conference room, a gun laid out in front of him. He was fiddling with a few pieces here and there and making sure it all fitted together.

Evelyn was leaning on the door frame, not entirely in the conference room, but not entirely out. She liked her current location. From it, she could see most of the plane, except for the cockpit and the stairs.

But, if somebody were to come from either of those locations, from her vantage point, she would see them before they saw her.

Paranoid, just like her mom had said.

Subconsciously, she was still keeping an eye on Ward. Everybody else on this plane she had a reason to trust. History, experience or familial connection. Ward was the oddball. He was a weapons expert, somebody who didn’t play well with others, but there was something else about him that set Evelyn off.

He hadn’t done anything yet, but Evelyn just had a feeling that she needed to keep watch on him. He had a dark side, and Evelyn hoped he could control it.

“Sir?” Simmons’ voice broke Evelyn from her mind tangent.

Coulson strode past Evelyn to meet Fitz and Simmons in the common area. Evelyn closed her eyes and listened in to the conversation, not really keen on being a part of it.

“The man didn’t explode because he was angry.” Simmons tried to explain. “The two are connected, it’s- it’s a kind of chemical surge. But, calming down will buy him a minute at most. He will detonate within the next few hours.”

Evelyn dropped her head, tucking her chin into her body tightly. That wasn’t the news she had wanted to hear.

She was no scientist, but she did know that there had to be something they could at least try.

"Solutions?” She piped up, never opening her eyes.

Simmons sighed dejectedly. “Isolate him, get him away from people?”

“Or?” Coulson pushed, not sounding too happy with option one.

“Put a bullet through his brain.” Fitz deadpanned, fidgeting with his hands.

As the words left Fitz’s mouth, Ward, either knowingly or unknowingly, made a loud clicking sound with his gun.

Evelyn cracked open a single eye to glare at him.

“If he’s dead his irradiated metabolic process will stop.”

Coulson looked over his shoulder and swapped his gaze between Ward and Evelyn.

Evelyn met his gaze and gave a tiny shake of her head.

“We need to come up with a third option,” Coulson ordered. “One that doesn’t involve Mike’s son losing a father.”

Evelyn felt a wave of sympathy wash over her. She had almost forgotten that Mike had a son.

“We have a couple hours, at most.” Simmons protested. “There’s no way that we could possibly-”

Coulson cut her off and took a step forward, his eyes smouldering. “Don’t ever tell me there’s no way!” He raised his voice and caused Evelyn to jolt herself off the wall and stand at attention. “It’s on you. Get it done.” He pointed a finger at Fitz-Simmons.

Evelyn expected the scientists to protest more, but they instead turned and hurried away.

Evelyn stepped up to match Coulson’s stride as he practically stalked into the conference room.

Ward, seemingly happy with his work on the gun, picked it up and packaged it away into a case.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes. Maybe it still wouldn’t come to that.

Coulson’s comm dinged and he reached down to play it through the conference room speakers.

“May?” He greeted without pause.

There was a groan on the other side that had Evelyn leaning forward, her eyes narrowed in worry.

“He took Skye.” Her mother groaned through the comm.

“You alright?” Coulson pressed.

“We’ll deal with that later, at length.” Melinda hissed.

Evelyn found herself relaxing. Her mother obviously wasn’t to hurt if she was still making threats at Phil.

“Right now we need to figure out where they went.”


	8. Pilot (Chapter 6)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry that this one is both late and short. There was a wind storm in my area that knocked out the power and internet for most of the day. Again, I'm so sorry and I'll try and not let it happen again.

It wasn’t often that Evelyn felt useless. It was a feeling that she hated and thus, actively tried to avoid. She hated being at the mercy of others.

She was feeling quite useless right now.

Fitz-Simmons had their job, Coulson was trying to find Skye, Melinda was helping and Ward was getting prepared for the worst. It seemed that everybody had a job to do. Everybody except Evelyn.

She had already packed her gear and armed herself with her knives, attached her double blade to her back, and clipped a handgun to her belt. She didn’t need any of the weapons, and if in a real fight probably wouldn’t need to use them. She preferred hand to hand and martial arts, but she still felt comforted by the weapons.

There was nothing to do, no job left to be complete. She dared not interrupt Fitz-Simmons while they were doing whatever it is they do. She could only sit in her room and wait.

So she did. She sat and waited. She fell immediately into a meditative state, a calm engulfing her form and she shut her eyes.

It was as if she was asleep, floating through a dream. But she was still aware of her surroundings. In fact, she was double aware now. She could hear Fitz-Simmons, all the way across the plane, fretting and panicking over the impossible task. She could hear Ward, still playing with his guns. She could hear Phil and her mother, talking in hushed tones.

Her whole body seemed to quiver with awareness and a need. A need to be explored. She tried to ignore the growing sensation, hating the feeling of losing control. She couldn’t, not here, not now.

But, no matter how hard she tried, the urge grew with each passing second and her eyes flew open. She blinked, suddenly aware of so much more.

She screwed her eyes shut again and suddenly it was like water was rushing over her head. The sound of the plane engine was deafening, but she was able to block it out and focus on what she wanted.

She could hear the heartbeats of every living agent on this Bus. She could hear every breath or lack of breath. She could smell the metallic scent of the cockpit from halfway across the plane and could feel her nostrils burning from the scent of sterilization chemicals in the lab downstairs.

Keeping her eyes closed while using this power was not likely to get her caught. She just looked like she was meditating, it wasn’t very conspicuous. If, however, she opened her eyes, she would be caught easily.

Because, while keeping her eyes closed helped focus her senses other than sight, it also hid the fact that her eyes were glowing.

If she had been alone, she would have opened her eyes and focused on a single object. Zoomed in until she could see each individual atom and relished in the feeling of not needing a microscope to do so.

But she couldn’t, not when there were so many people around. Not when there were so many unknown variables.

She loved the feeling of letting go. It was a little piece of ecstasy every time. A feeling that nothing could ever replace. She would have loved to remain feeling this free forever, but she couldn’t. She would be needed soon.

Nobody could see her like this, they would not understand.

Nobody could ever know.

~+~

Evelyn raced after Coulson, trying to understand what he was yelling back at Fitz-Simmons. Apparently, Skye had hacked the bus and sent them coordinates of where to find her.

Clever girl.

Ward pulled open the driver's side door to the SUV, having every intention of getting in.

“Uh uh!” Evelyn huffed, pointing a finger at Ward. “I’m driving, flyboy.”


	9. Pilot (Chapter 7)

Evelyn brought the SUV to a halt. The coordinates were only about a hundred feet from where they had stopped, but Evelyn didn’t want to risk being spotted.

She had no way of knowing what Mike would do.

Evelyn stayed back in the SUV as Coulson took the initiative and approached Skye’s van. She wasn’t very good at the whole ‘intake process’ thing that S.H.I.E.L.D did.

Suddenly, Evelyn was out of her seat and flinging the door open as the side door to the van was ripped off and flung, just barely missing Coulson’s head. She rushed forward to help the local police that had been hit by the door.

“He’s taking Skye and the kid into the station.” She reported into her comm.

She abandoned the police officers as a paramedic unit arrived and raced for the nearest secluded spot.

She screwed her eyes shut and let go, reaching out with her senses, looking for anything. She heard something and zeroed in on the location. Footsteps, not a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, but he was armed. She could hear the gun clinking as he walked.

“The kid is secure.” Coulson’s voice echoed through the ear comm. Evelyn flinched and hissed gently. The loud noise vibrated roughly in her more sensitive ears.

There was a click as the man loaded the gun and then Evelyn was forced back to her body as a gunshot rang out.

Evelyn had heard the sound of Mike and Skye’s voice, somewhere near the man with the gun. She snapped open her eyes and scanned her environment. Reigning in her powers, she took off at a sprint towards a flight of stairs that lead towards the top level.

“I got him. Northside, upper level. Third-party involvement has been confirmed.”Evelyn muttered into the comm, taking the steps two at a time.

Out of the corner of her eye, Evelyn noticed her mother, already racing towards the man with the gun. Her mother disappeared over the top of the stairs and Evelyn pushed her pace. She bounded up the last step to see her mother kick out the legs of the man.

She sent a fleeting look back at Evelyn and dropped to her hands and knees.

Evelyn took the chance and vaulted up and over her mom's back, using it as a stepping stool. She came down, her hand aimed at the man’s head. She felt her knuckles collide with the man and landed with a forward roll, hearing the sound of the man collapsing.

She turned to her mother, a smile on her face.

“Have I told you how good it is to have you back yet?” Melinda May muttered, an uncharacteristically loving smile on her face.

Evelyn felt warm. “Only once or twice.” She muttered, her eyes softening. “I never get tired of hearing it though.”

“Come on, Evelyn, Coulson needs our help,” Melinda ordered, the moment gone. “Oh, and get the girl, we need her too.”

~+~

Evelyn had always liked to run. Even as a child she was always the fastest in her gym class and able to run the longest without breaks. That skill had helped her when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D. But, what Evelyn didn’t enjoy, was running into danger. And taking a civilian with her.

She would never voice these doubts to her mother, or anyone for that matter. But, she was almost certain that Melinda shared them.

She rounded a corner, to come face to face with a sight she had been hoping to avoid. Mike was glowing, his skin cracking. Coulson was staring him down, trying to talk him out of whatever it was that was happening. Ward was on the balcony, gun trained solely on Mike and even from her far away location, she could see the dangerous glint in his eyes.

“You think this is killing me!?” Mike hissed, thrusting his arm forward wildly. He shook his head, a hurt expression working its way onto his face. “All over, there are people being pushed down, being robbed.” He turned and ripped a large metal strut from the ground next to him. “One of them tries to stand up, you got to make an example of him.

Evelyn froze in her step, eyeing the piece of metal warily.

“You bring this building down on us, will that help them?” Coulson asked, gently pushing Mike.

Mike turned and slammed the metal strut into a pillar. His face sparked red for a moment. “That’s a lie! All you do is lie!”

Evelyn felt a flash of sympathy. She went to take a step towards Mike, but the warning glare from Coulson was enough to keep her in place.

“You said if we worked hard, if we did right, we’d have a place. You said it was enough to be a man! But, there’s better than man. There’s gods.” Mike whispered. “And the rest of us, what are we? They’re giants, we’re what they step on.”

Coulson took a step closer to Mike. Evelyn tensed, ready for any move that the man would make.

“I know. I’ve seen giants - up close.” Coulson tried to reason. “And that privilege cost me, nearly everything. But the good ones, the real deal, they’re not heroes because of what they have that we don’t. It’s what they do with it. You’re right, Mike. It matters who you are.”

Mike’s face fell and the red seemed to drain from his face. “I could you know, be a hero.”

“I’m counting on it.”

The air was split by a silenced gunshot and Evelyn jumped, her eyes widening as Mike jerked backward then collapsed. Evelyn turned her wide-eyed gaze on Ward and felt her confusion grow. He was no longer holding his old gun, but a new one that glowed blue.

It was the night-night gun.

She was shoved from behind as Simmons rushed past her to get to Mike. Evelyn tried to meet Jemma’s gaze and was relieved to see that the scientist was smiling. Evelyn was sure that Jemma would not be smiling if Mike had been killed.

Disaster avoided.


	10. Part 2: 0-8-4

Evelyn didn’t like to think of what could have been. She preferred to dwell on what was. Her old S.O at the academy had told her that dwelling on what could have been could drive someone mad.

But, she couldn’t help but imagine what could have happened had they failed today.

“I need a drink… or three.” She muttered under her breath. She shared a glance with Ward.

“You do know that the plane has a full bar, right?” He scoffed.

“But, I’m on flying duty.” Evelyn sighed. “You should never drink and fly.”

She sighed and leaned forward onto the table in the middle of the conference room. She rubbed at her eyes with a hand. She could have sworn that she heard Ward chuckle, but when her vision cleared Ward held no sign that he had even had a tiny moment of joy.

“Does smiling physically hurt you or something?” She muttered under her breath.

“Does being quiet hurt you?” He shot back.

“Touche. Well played Ward, well played.” She narrowed her eyes in a mock threat.

Ward looked as if he was going to say something else when a beeping from the main console interrupted him.

“Bus, please acknowledge. Coulson?” The voice came through.

“Maria.” Evelyn greeted, waiting for the image to clear. “Coulson is not here at the moment.”

“Relay the information to him. You have a new mission. There is a reported 0-8-4 in Peru. You are going there, confirming the existence of the 0-8-4 and calling in a specialist crew or bringing it to the Slingshot yourself.”

“Yes, ma’am. We’ll leave immediately.” Evelyn saluted.

The communication cut out and Evelyn was left in silence.

“Ward, call Coulson. I’ll get the Bus ready to fly. Tell him he has 10 minutes to get back here or Agent May and I are gonna leave him.”

~+~

Somehow, Coulson had managed to return to the bus within ten minutes, bring Skye’s van and reveal to the rest of the team that the hacker was going to be joining the crew.

Evelyn wasn’t complaining, Skye got the room right beside hers.

But, as pretty as Skye was, Evelyn couldn’t trust her.

Evelyn followed behind Coulson and Ward with a narrowed gaze. She couldn’t help but agree with some of the arguments Ward was giving.

“Skye? That girl is not qualified to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.” Ward protested, heartily.

“Agreed.” Coulson sighed. “That is why I’ve invited her on as a consultant.”

Evelyn scoffed and crossed her arms. She leaned against the door frame and shook her head.

“S.H.I.E.L.D does it all the time. Technically, Stark is a consultant.”

“And technically,” Evelyn offered. “Skye is a member of the Rising Tide.”

Of course, Evelyn thought that Skye was cute, but that would never distract her from the fact that she could not be trusted. There was nothing more important to Evelyn than the safety of her team and herself, not even a pretty girl.

“She hacked our RSA implementation-” Ward growled.

“Twice, from a laptop,” Coulson added. “Imagine what she will do with our resources.”

“I am. That’s exactly what I’m imagining during this frown.” Ward crossed his arms and Evelyn snorted slightly. "You brought me on for risk assessment, she’s a risk. She doesn’t think like us."

“Exactly.”

Evelyn pushed herself off the wall as her mother entered the room. She stood at attention, trying to give her mother a mock salute.

As her mother passed her, she reached up and slapped Evelyn across the back of the head. Evelyn jerked forward dramatically and held her head in her hands. She sent her mother a hurt glare and received a slightly amused smirk in exchange.

“We have two kids on this Bus who aren’t cleared for combat, you’re adding a third.” Melinda countered, giving her opinion to the argument, her eyes immediately growing cold.

“At least Fitz-Simmons are trained S.H.I.E.L.D scientists.” Ward agreed. “But Skye? You said this was a select team. Assembled to work new cases, to protect people. I don’t see how letting some hacker tag along –”

“I’m looking for an objection I haven’t already anticipated.” Coulson snapped, glaring at Ward and Melinda until they stood down. “I’m calling this, but your frown will be on record.”

“I’m going to go get the plane ready for takeoff. We need to get to the 0-8-4 before anybody else.” Evelyn sighed.

~+~

Evelyn had had every intention of going right back to her room after her mother had relieved her from the cockpit. After much protest from Evelyn, she had agreed that her mom could handle keeping them in the air. Even so, Evelyn had made her mother promise to get her before they landed in Peru.

“I don’t even know where we are going.” The voice of Skye had Evelyn pausing in her stride.

“Peru.” That was Coulson’s voice. “That’s where the 0-8-4 was reported.”

“And an 0-8-4 is…?” Skye dragged out.

Evelyn plopped herself onto the couch right next to Skye and across from Coulson. “An object of unknown origin.”

Skye yelped and curled into the curve of the couch. “Where did you come from? I didn’t even hear you!”

Evelyn smirked and shrugged.

"An 0-8-4.” Coulson mused. “Kind of like you. Team goes in, determines if it’s useful or if it poses a threat. The last one turned out to be pretty interesting.”

Skye tore her gaze from Evelyn and turned back to Coulson with an interested smile. “And what was the last one?

“A hammer.”


	11. 0-8-4 (Chapter 1)

Working with S.H.I.E.L.D over the years had prepared Evelyn for many unexpected twists and turns going into missions. She had grown used to changing on the fly. But, she always preferred to know the very tiny details and specifics of whatever op she was a part of.

With an 0-8-4, that was impossible.

An 0-8-4 could be anything, a weapon, a device, an energy source or even an alien spacecraft! Nobody knew what it could possibly be before the op began. That left a lot of questions unanswered.

Evelyn didn’t like being in the dark.

She was jolted from her thoughts as the door to the SUV the team had all crowded into opened with a soft click. She inhaled deeply and managed to wiggle out of her confines after Fitz and Simmons.

“Tire tracks, 40 metres back.” Evelyn jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

“I’ll check them against the site's trucks, make sure we’re alone.” Ward acknowledged.

“There’s too much exposure here,” Melinda muttered from the car. “I’m going to go find a place to park.”

“Feeling paranoid already?” Evelyn laughed. “Just wait until we actually see this 0-8-4.”

Her mother just rolled her eyes, shook her head, and clambered back into the car.

“I would love to see a capuchin in the wild.” Fitz stuttered, eyeing the trees as the team trekked away from the cars. Simmons smiled. It was a smile that reached her ears, a genuine love for Fitz's childish nature. “Maybe even a yellow-tailed woolly monkey. You know, um, Peru has 32 different species of monkeys.”

“Yeah, and close to 200 species of snakes. The shushupe has a fascinating venom. It’s neurotoxic, proteolytic, and hemolytic.”

Evelyn grimaced, if there was one thing she hated more than needles, it was snakes.

Simmons laughed heartily and Fitz chuckled. He looked around nervously and Evelyn smiled at his discomfort.

“That’s fascinating.” He mumbled.

“Yeah.” Simmons sent a look towards Fitz and her expression softened. “Oh, no, I’d be much more concerned with earthquakes, mala –”

Evelyn flinched as Jemma reached up and slapped the back of Fitz’ neck, squishing a bug. She laughed again, her eyes sparkling.

“There’s no vaccine for Dengue Fever.”

“Great,” Evelyn replied dryly. “So it’s either death by disease or death by poisonous slithery demons.”

“Evelyn,” Simmons chuckled. “Is someone afraid of snakes?”

Evelyn bristled and squared her shoulders in defiance. She wouldn’t give Simmons the satisfaction. “No.” She protested. “I’d just prefer that we don’t lose a team member on the second mission.”

The protest was weak, Evelyn knew that, but Simmons smiled anyway.

“Of course.”

The trees thinned out and opened into a wide space. Evelyn felt the breath leave her body as she took in the monument before her.

The massive Incan temple rose into the air and at the base, there was a small opening, barely wide enough for 2 people to fit through.

“Oh! Evelyn, can you take a picture of Fitz and me?” Simmons squealed in delight.

Evelyn smiled, a rare genuine smile that made her stomach feel light. She nodded.

She tried to focus on the picture, to capture the moment in front of her, but it was hard. There was something about this temple. Or maybe about what was inside it.

She snapped the picture and returned Jemma’s phone to her.

“Good morning, professor.” Coulson greeted, removing his I.D from his pocket. “I’m Agent Coulson, with S.H.I.E.L.D. I understand you’ve made an interesting discovery.”

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and created a profile on the man before her. She took in his outfit, the sunglasses, his worn skin and even the jewelry decorating his person.

Around 40 years of age, been working in intense work for a while, probably since he was a kid. Cheap suit means limited funds. Married, no kids. Threat level: low.

She nodded, satisfied with her threat assessment.

“I-I’m not sure how to explain it.” The man stuttered, only a gentle accent maring his words. “This temple dates back at least 500 years. It’s filled with pre-Incan artifacts. One of them is... impossible. And it looks like it might be dangerous.”

The man turned to lead the group into the temple. Coulson sent a look towards Evelyn and she nodded slowly. She rested a hand on her knives.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the professor, she just didn’t trust the area. This area of Peru was known for its radical rebels and civil wars

She would have to be alert.

~+~

In this world, Evelyn had only ever found a few things that left her breathless. Many times what had would eventually lose its magnificence and become nothing but another thing. One of her last girlfriends had fallen into that trap.

However, monuments of days gone by never ceased to excite and astound her.

Even so, it wasn’t the monument that she stood in that was impressing her to no end, it was what was grafted to the wall. It looked like a machine, but not a machine. Coulson had warned the professor to clear his team out for their own safety.

“There is nothing about this anywhere.” Skye laughed, looking up from her phone. “It’s amazing! I searched every data stream. What do we got here guys?”

Evelyn shrugged. This wasn’t exactly her area of expertise. She turned towards the resident nerds of the team. “Fitz-Simmons, what is it?”

For a moment, nobody replied. The nerds had released the drones that they lovingly called the dwarfs. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

No. 2, Sleepy, was hovering around the machine, making scans of whatever the thing was. Skye approached cautiously and reached out a hand.

Evelyn was about to call her back when Fitz lunged forward. “I, uh, I wouldn’t do that.” 

Skye looked back with a worried expression and Evelyn chuckled. She hid the chuckle behind a cough and averted her eyes. 

“The object’s placement in the fossiliferous rock formation suggests it’s been here for at least 1,500 years,” Simmons exclaimed, her eyes glowing. “That pre-dates this temple by a millennium. Ah! Maybe it’s alien.”

Evelyn narrowed her eyes. Aliens, great! Because nothing bad ever happens when Aliens are involved.

“Yeah, but the shape and craftsmanship, it’s almost German.” Fitz added.

“So, what exactly are we dealing with? Where is it from and what is it?” Evelyn prodded.

Fitz-Simmons shared a look and Jemma’s eyebrows furrowed together in concentration. “Give us a minute.”

Coulon’s walkie talkie crackled and Ward’s voice came through. “Sir?”

“Go.” Coulson pulled the walkie talkie from his belt.

“We have a situation.”

“Lot’s of rebels in this area.” Skye piped up.

“Not enough gunfire.” Evelyn pointed out with a shake of her head.

“On our way,” Coulson reported. He snapped his fingers towards Evelyn. “Cover my back, if it's anything bad, you’re the last line of defence for Fitz-Simmons and Skye.”

Evelyn nodded and removed the knives from her belt. She twirled them in between her fingers and smirked. “You can count on me, sir.”

Evelyn was expecting a fight. Was ready for it, actually. What she found instead was just a standoff. Nobody seemed ready to stand down.

“Buenos Dias.” Coulson greeted immediately. “Soy Agent Coulson. Estamos aquí por un asunto de la seguridad internacional.” (Good morning, I’m agent Coulson. We are here on a matter of international security.)

Evelyn raised her eyebrow. She had had no idea that Coulson could speak Spanish. “¿Tu hablas español?” She questioned lowly. (You speak Spanish?)

Coulson sent her a glare over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes. Evelyn smiled innocently.

A woman, one who carried herself with an air of confidence stepped forward, a look of recognition on her face. She was obviously in charge of the men surrounding the temple.

“Phillip?” She questioned.

Coulson looked shocked for a second before his eyes softened with realization. “Camilla?” He gestured to the gathered men. “Do you mind?”

Camilla placed a hand on her hip and smirked. “You first.”

Evelyn tensed. It didn’t sound like a threat, but she could never be too careful in this line of duty.

Coulson nodded at Ward and he shoved the soldier he had been using as a shield away. May followed suit and tucked away her two guns, which she had not had leaving the bus, and let some soldiers walk away.

Evelyn reluctantly sheathed her knives and relaxed her posture.

Camilla jogged up the steps to stand beside Coulson. “Now for a proper hello.” She leaned in and planted a kiss on each cheek.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, immediately picking up on some tension between the two. One look at her mother confirmed her suspicions.

This wasn’t an average relationship.

Evelyn was no stranger to tension. She had been around enough former flings to recognize when there had been something between someone else.

If it was supposed to be private, then people shouldn't make it so obvious.

Evelyn was a master of hiding her feelings and secrets. S.H.I.E.L.D called it an asset, her mother called it survival, her psychiatrist called it unhealthy. She never was a fan of shrinks.

“Comandante, a promotion,” Coulson remarked simply. “Congratulations.”

“Three years ago actually, but thanks.”

Coulson’s gaze never wavered from Camilla as he introduced the rest of the team. “Agent Melinda May, Agent Grant Ward, Agent Evelyn May, this is comandante Camilla Reyes. She’s with the Policia Militar Del Peru. We used to work together back in the day.”

Melinda scoffed and Evelyn smirked widely. The smirk grew into a smile as Ward shared an uncomfortable glance with her mother.

“Let the team know that everything is okay.” Coulson ordered.

Evelyn felt reluctant to leave. Even though Coulson obviously knew this Camilla woman, and they had history, Evelyn still didn’t trust her.

Eventually, with slight coaxing from her mother, she turned and followed Ward back into the temple.


	12. 0-8-4 (Chapter 2)

“We’ve got company,” Ward explained as soon as he entered the 0-8-4 room. “National Police.”

“What? Why are they here?” Fitz questioned, looking up from his tablet.

“Because their leader has a crush.” Evelyn joked. She lurched forward as her mother smacked her across the back of the head. She sent her mother a wounded look and puffed out her bottom lip like a child.

Her mother scoffed and didn’t make any attempt to apologize. She did, however, put a comforting hand on Evelyn’s shoulder.

“They heard about the object.” Ward pointed out, ignoring Evelyn. “They’re probably here to protect it. This area has lots of rebel uprisings.” He took a few steps closer to the object, eyeing it closely.

“Yeah, people are fighting back against the government,” Skye commented with a smile. “It’s pretty kick-ass.”

Ward glared at her. “Yeah, it’s kick-ass, all the violence.”

“That’s not what I’m saying-”

“No, that's what you're typing. In your van alone.” He growled. “How much longer.” He addressed the question to Fitz and Simmons.

“What’s the hurry?”

“Are we in danger?” They reply in unison.

“Not if everybody does their job.” Ward turned towards Skye. “What is yours, exactly?”

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and took a step forward, positioning herself discreetly between the two. Evelyn felt a frown form as Skye dropped her eyes and stared at the ground, unable to answer.

Evelyn was about to snap a retort back to Ward when the ground was rocked with an explosion and dirt rained down on the team's heads.

She whirled on her heels to stare out the entrance, picking up on the distinct sound of gunfire.

Ward was immediately back on alert, his previous anger gone. “Sounds like they are engaging with rebels. Let’s go.”

Evelyn jogged to the entrance and ducked back inside immediately. “Rebels.” She hissed. “They’re coming for it, let’s move!”

The dwarfs quickly flew back towards their owners and Fitz crouched down to package them away. But, in typical Fitz fashion, he was being very picky about where each dwarf needed to go.

Skye bent down to help put them away but was quickly shooed back by Fitz and Simmons.

“It doesn’t matter.” She argued.

“It does to me!”

“Please, let us handle this.”

“We need a containment case for the 0-8-4.” Evelyn pointed out.

Ward looked at her with unbridled contempt. “There’s no time!”

“But it has a fluctuating power core, frequencies way above 10 exahertz!” Fitz argued.

The ground was rocked once again and Evelyn reached out to yank Skye towards her as chunks of boulder fell towards the girl.

Ward growled and stalked towards the object. “Sorry, science class is over.” Ward yanked the device from the wall and moved to put it in Fitz bag.

“You did not just pull that out of the wall!” Fitz worried. “What is the matter with you? Do you realize that we do not know the amount of photon emissions coming out of this-”

Ward shoved him forward roughly and strapped the bag to his back.

“Stay close!” Evelyn ordered.

She grasped her knives firmly in either hand and turned to lead the group out of the temple. One glance back at her mother was enough to convey a silent order. Her mother dropped back to cover the rear.

Breaking from the cover of the temple, Evelyn was met immediately with a sight that could only be compared to Hell.

The police force was overwhelmed, the ground was torn up in multiple places from explosions, and hundreds of rebels were converging on the one area.

Evelyn felt Ward lean over her shoulder and fire a few rounds out into the trees. Evelyn abandoned her knives back on her belt and ripped her gun from its holster.

“Get back!” She ordered the group, slowly retreating back towards the temple.

Evelyn crouched at the entrance, positioning her body between the crazy gunfight and the untrained agents behind her. She dug through her belt and pulled out a tiny baton.

“Ward!” She called, dragging his attention from the fight. She launched the baton through the air towards Ward and ducked back as the wall beside her head was lit up with bullets.

There were two sharp stings along her shoulder and she flinched back, gritting her teeth together. She ducked her head as Ward took the baton and made a flying leap towards the center of the chaos.

The baton elongated and Ward planted it firmly in the ground.

“Get down.” She hissed to the team.

The weapon went off and a sonic beam was released, knocking the rebels down and incapacitating them.

Evelyn sighed heavily and turned to grip the arm of the closest team member. She ended up grabbing Jemma and hoisting her to her feet. “Get to the cars, now!”

The group rushed towards Ward, a panic setting in.

There was a screech of tires and suddenly the S.H.I.E.L.D SUV was pulling up in front of them and the doors were thrust open.

Evelyn stared in shock at her mother. When did she slip away and get the car? She questioned.

She shoved the three team members roughly into the car and squished herself in beside them.

The car took off and crashed through the trees, taking the most direct route back to the roadway.

“Coulson is secure in the PMP truck.” Ward relayed. “Take the south route to the airfield.”

The SUV was suddenly lit up with gunfire and Evelyn ducked, putting an arm around Simmons and covering her head. “Everybody, keep your heads down.”

The road was unpaved and Melinda May seemed to hit every single pothole there was on the way back to the airfield.

“Slow down!” Fitz cried.

Skye turned to look at him with a glare. “You’re joking, right?”

“Ward, listen, we have to be careful. There’s a binding energy structure that could overheat.”

Simmons looked excited for a moment before she reached across Evelyn towards the door. “I could roll down a window!”

The rebels fired on the truck again, causing the three to let out yells. Evelyn snatched Jemma’s hand back and rolled the window back up with a glare at each member.

“Do not roll down a window!” She hissed.

Ward turned to address the three. “Stay quiet and keep your heads down!” He turned back around to speak with May. “Head left, the ravine empties.”

Melinda May didn't say anything, but followed his instructions without another thought. The car was ravaged by another set of bumps and Evelyn was thrown into the window, her head ringing from impact.

“Hey! We need to go back! I think you missed a bump!” She growled at her mother.

“Quiet!”

If the situation wasn’t so dire, Evelyn might have snickered at the frustrated look on her mother's face. It wasn’t often that Melinda May got frustrated.

Instead, Evelyn reached around her mother's seat and typed a few things into the panel on the door. The windshield lit up with an alert that the Bus’ ramp was being lowered.

“How fast can you have the wheels up?” Ward breathed.

Evelyn smirked, leaning back cockily. “Fast.” She replied simply.

Melinda May pulled the SUV right up the ramp and threw it into park, leaping out without hesitation. “Ramp!” She instructed Ward.

Evelyn took off running, right up the spiral staircase and across the living area. She threw open the door to the cockpit, her mother hot on her heels.

Evelyn primed the engines and cycled the fuel through every cylinder she could, hoping to quicken the warm-up. The Bus screamed in protest and Evelyn cringed at the unhealthy sound.

I’m sorry baby.

The Bus beeped loudly and Evelyn cringed internally.

“Evelyn, the ramp is jammed! Get down there and provide cover while I get it fixed!” May ordered.

Evelyn spun her chair and took off back across the Bus. She didn’t bother with the stairs and instead vaulted over the railing, falling about 8 feet. Her shoulder ached with protest at the sudden jarring and she clenched her teeth against the white-hot pain.

“Get off the ramp!” She yelled at Fitz-Simmons and Skye.

“You’re in the line of fire!” Ward hissed, anger dripping from each word.

Evelyn reached out and took hold of Skye’s shoulder, yanking her away from the opening. She held her gun in front of her, firing a few shots to lay down cover.

The ramp made a sickening crunch sound and suddenly it was pulling up, slowly but surely. The Peruvian Police force and Coulson managed to hop onto the ramp at the last second.

Even before the ramp was fully closed, Evelyn felt her mother gun the engines and suddenly, they were making an improvised emergency takeoff.

Evelyn collapsed backwards, breathing heavily. She clenched her eyes shut and bit her lip against the burning in her shoulder. She looked up when a shadow fell across her eyelids.

Taking Coulson’s offered hand, Evelyn dragged herself shakily to her feet.

“Cutting it pretty close, sir.” Ward commented dryly.

“Didn’t want to leave anyone behind.”

Evelyn shook herself from Coulson’s grasp and turned towards the three terrified individuals. They were huddled together and shaking in a corner of the garage. Evelyn felt a wave of sympathy for each of them.

“I’ve got to say it!” Skye breathed shakily, removing herself from the grasp of Fitz-Simmons. “I miss my van!”

Ward holstered his gun and glared at the science duo. “Now, what was the problem?”

“As I said before,” Fitz breathed. “This device has a high-frequency, fluctuating, sub-material compression –”

“Fitz, in English.” Evelyn raised an eyebrow.

“The 0-8-4 is fueled by Tesseract technology.” Fitz dummied. “Hydra. World War II. Captain America.”

Skye slowly pulled herself to her feet and almost collapsed forward out of exhaustion. Evelyn reached out a hand to support the poor girl. Skye ended up putting almost all her weight on Evelyn with a tired sigh.

“It’s full of lethal amounts of gamma radiation.”

Ward’s jaw gaped. “Gamma, you’re saying it's nuclear?”

“No.” Coulson sighed. “He’s saying it’s much, much worse.”

Evelyn felt a panic rise up within her. She knew first hand what radiation could do to a person. Her breathing hitched and she took a step back, dragging Skye with her. The group seemed to take a few steps away from the device at Coulson’s words.

“Great.” Evelyn deadpanned, hoping to break the tension. “We’re all going to turn into the Hulk.”

She didn’t think that the joke was all that funny, but Skye laughed anyway. It might have been the exhaustion making her delirious, but she laughed none the less. It was a beautiful sound that had Evelyn’s heart soaring.

If Skye thought she was funny, that was all that mattered.


	13. 0-8-4 (Chapter 3)

Inside Fitz-Simmons lab, Evelyn was still supporting Skye as the science duo carefully opened the bag. Jemma removed the device with careful precision.

“Not to worry, the device is stable.” She mumbled.

Skye shifted nervously and Evelyn loosened her hold on the girl to allow her movement. Skye removed herself from Evelyn and leaned against a table. Evelyn frowned, she had liked how warm Skye was.

“Not that it couldn’t explode at any minute, especially if hit with machine gun fire.” Simmons continued to ramble. “But, things like this happen from time to time when in the field, and at first, it’s very unpleasant, and you regret your decision to leave the lab at all.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow and smiled, despite the serious circumstance.

“Are you mental?” The voice of Fitz suddenly rang around the lab as he stormed in with Ward on his tail.

Evelyn turned her attention to the two men and rolled her eyes. It was obvious that they had been having the argument for quite some time. “The juries still out on that.”

“I did explain, in great detail, what I meant in the Queen’s bloody English!”

“Well,” Ward snarled. “I use normal English. Words like ‘duck’ and ‘run’ and ‘might blow us to pieces’!”

Evelyn rolled her eyes and scoffed. Ward was really starting to rub her the wrong way. If he didn’t stop acting like a pompous ass, she might lose her cool.

“Good for you, you can say 7 words.” Evelyn muttered under her breath.

“Oh! Well congratulations, Agent Ward.” Fitz sneered. “You managed to string three words together in a sentence!”

Evelyn snickered and crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s got you there.”

Ward turned his furious gaze on Evelyn and it seemed to ignite with a new fire. “You want to back off, Agent?” Ward snarled.

Evelyn froze, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Oh yeah, Flyboy? I’m starting to want you to make me. I will throw your ass to the ground.” She snarled, her voice low.

Ward took a threatening step forward. “Oh yeah? Try it.”

“You got your toys and your weapons, take that away and what are you?” Evelyn matched Ward’s step, bringing herself almost nose to nose with the other agent.

“A S.H.I.E.L.D agent that finished top of his class.” Ward snarled. “What about you? What are you?”

“Not a lonely little boy with a broken family.” Evelyn deadpanned.

“The only reason you got into S.H.I.E.L.D was because your mother was already a high-level agent.” Ward snarled. “I had no familial connection, I earned everything I got.”

Evelyn was about to punch him in his smug-looking face when a hand on her shoulder dragged her back to reality. She turned her furious eyes on Skye.

Immediately, she felt the anger leaving her and her eyes softened. Evelyn turned away from Ward and leaned herself over a table, breathing deeply and shutting her eyes.

One, two, three. She counted in her mind, timing her breaths with each number. She knew that Ward was angry and was just looking for a reaction. Fighting between each other would not accomplish anything.

She was vaguely aware of a hand rubbing gentle circles into her back and shoulder. Luckily the hand stayed on her left shoulder and avoided the wounds that were still bleeding. The blood had probably soaked through her shirt by now.

Subconsciously, Evelyn reached up a hand and rubbed the sore shoulder, hissing in pain as her fingers ghosted over the area. She pulled back her hand to inspect it and wasn’t at all surprised to see it soaked and dripping with her own blood.

Evelyn’s hair was ruffled by a breath as a face was pressed directly beside her, breathing against her ear.

“Are you bleeding?” Skye’s voice pitched upwards with worry.

“It’s just a scratch, I cut myself on a branch.” Evelyn lied.

Skye was about to respond when the door to the lab hissed open and the argument between Ward and Fitz was interrupted.

“Do we have a problem?” Coulson asked with a caring glance around the room.

Evelyn pushed herself off the table and gently shrugged off Skye’s hand. She turned to face Coulson, reluctant to say anything.

“No, sir,” Ward grumbled. “Just working on our communication. Not all of us were prepared for a firefight.” He sent a glare towards Fitz, then Simmons and finally Skye.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t Fitz-Simmons or Skye’s fault that they didn’t go to the op academy of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“We got out, didn’t lose anyone, saved a few of theirs, I’d say we did alright.” Coulson pointed out. “Anything else?”

Skye raised her hand slowly. “Uh, yeah. I have got a small question. Because I’ve been feeling like the tagalong hayseed rookie, but now I get the sense that Ward doesn’t know which ones Simmons and which one’s Fitz,” Evelyn snickered as Skye pointed to the wrong scientist with each name. “And they’ve seen even less gunfire than me, and I’m not a rocket scientist, but is this your first mission together?”

Evelyn rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

Simmons spoke up meekly. “No, of course not. It’s our second.”

Skye raised a cocky eyebrow. “I was your first? That’s sweet.”

Evelyn smiled at Skye’s attempt at humor and averted her gaze to try and hide her amusement.

“You’re amused?” Ward hissed at both Skye and Evelyn.

“I’m terrified!” Skye argued. “I am in way over my head, but I have been on this team just as long as any of you. I might as well be Team Captain.”

Simmons scoffed and looked away as Fitz shot a look to Ward. Evelyn shook her head slowly and bit her lip. She thought the joke was funny.

“I was joking, but maybe that’s not a bad idea, because these guys,” She motioned towards Ward, Fitz, Simmons and Evelyn. “Do not like each other much.

“This isn’t about that.” Ward sighed. He turned and looked to Coulson. “I’m a specialist. Today, I could have eliminated the enemy threat myself if I was working alone. But, I had non-combat ready agents –”

“Oh yeah, a specialist.” Evelyn cut him off. “Well guess what, you’re not the only specialist on the team! Do you see me picking fights with everybody?”

Ward shot her a look and his eyes darkened dangerously.

“Whoa, whoa.” Fitz laughed. “Wait. You work alone?”

Simmons walked around the middle table to stand beside Fitz. “So typical. Who do you think designs your equipment?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Or the polymers for your weaponry?” Fitz added.

Skye walked around the table as Ward focused on the other two. Evelyn knew that it was about to dissolve into a fight again.

“People like us do it.” Fitz motioned between him and Simmons.

“Try going into the field with just your bare bum.” Simmons agreed.

Skye was standing close to Coulson and spoke quietly. “See them proving the point I just made?”

Evelyn sighed and rubbed her face in frustration. They were adults. They were highly trained adults. They should not be acting like petulant children.

“You’re not wrong.” Coulson turned to address the entire team. “We still need to iron out the kinks. But, Ward and Evelyn, you can speak six languages and you're masters of espionage. Simmons, you have two PhDs in fields I can’t pronounce, and Fitz, you are a rocket scientist. So work it out.”

With that said, he walked out of the room, with Skye looking after him with disbelief.

“I- I’m – I’m good at stuff too!” She protested weakly.

Evelyn placed a hand on Skye’s shoulder and smiled. “Of course you are.” She smiled gently. “Nobody else on this plane can hack into the most secure agencies in the world.”

Skye seemed to perk up at that and she dipped her head slowly. She pulled away from Evelyn's touch only to turn and face her.

“Thanks.” She muttered. “You’re the only one here who treats me like a normal human being.”


	14. 0-8-4 (Chapter 4)

Long days were not very rare when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D. Evelyn had seen her fair share of days that seemed to go on for years. Today was no different.

Evelyn didn’t understand it. Usually, the adrenaline made time seem to fly. Well, she had had enough adrenaline pumping through her today to last her a lifetime. And yet, the day wasn’t even over.

Evelyn wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bunk and sleep her troubles away. Maybe when she woke up, the 0-8-4 would be gone and she wouldn’t have to check on it every few minutes.

She was beginning to have trouble staying awake in the copilot's seat. Her eyes watered against the faint light the controls gave off and she stifled a yawn behind a cough.

“I can fly without a copilot if you want to go take a nap.” Her mother suggested, never taking her eyes from the controls in front of her.

“I’m… fine.” Evelyn yawned, her eyes drooping against her wishes.

Her mother smiled the signature Melinda May half side smile. She reached out a hand to rest over her daughters, controlling the throttle. Evelyn met her mother's eyes and felt herself melting in her seat. “I’ve got this, love.”

Love. It was such a simple nickname, but it carried so much weight between Evelyn and her mother. Evelyn wasn’t called love very often, or any other cute girly nickname, but when she was, she had always felt her heart flutter.

Evelyn parted her jaws to retort a sarcastic remark, but she decided against it. She didn’t have enough energy to be sassy.

Evelyn leaned herself over, draping herself dramatically across both seats and laying her head in her mother's lap. She yawned and nestled closer to Melinda’s warmth.

“I can nap right here.” She mumbled drowsily. “That way if you need me, I’m right here.”

Evelyn felt her mother chuckle and a hand was dragged through her hair slowly.

“What would the team think if they saw you like this?” Melinda chuckled. She took Evelyn’s hand and placed a delicate kiss to the knuckles. “Not so scary anymore, huh?”

Evelyn grumbled, her eyelids already shutting. She counted the rhythmic strokes along her scalp and sighed with contentment.

“Sleep, love.” Her mother breathed lovingly. “I’ll wake you soon.”

That was the last thing Evelyn remembered before she fell into a fitful sleep.

~+~

Panic. Adrenaline. Pain.

That was all that Evelyn could feel. All that she could know.

It was a familiar sensation, but that didn’t make it any more pleasant. She felt like she was burning, but freezing at the same time. Every sense, every nerve was alert with searing heat and terrible cold at the same time.

Evelyn screamed, but no sound came out. Or maybe it did, she couldn’t hear anything. Her jaws hurt. Her entire face hurt. Bruises were a common occurrence.

She couldn’t hear anything. Not her own breathing, not the breathing of those around her, not even the sound of her heart trying to burst out of her chest. There was nothing.

There was pain and fear and darkness.

~+~

Evelyn jolted awake, tearing herself fearfully away from whatever had a hold on her. She whimpered and collapsed onto the ground, throwing herself against the wall with a loud thud.

Her shoulder screamed, the familiar pain igniting all the senses within her body.

There was a hand, reaching towards her. She flinched expecting more pain, expecting discipline. She was panicking, they didn’t like it when she panicked. 

They didn’t like it when she moved.

She held herself still, trying to will her breathing back to normal. Trying to grasp anything. She grasped her own arm, digging and clawing her nails into the skin over and over again in rapid succession, desperate for any type of relief.

She was aware of a voice, close, but sounding far away. A hand was desperately trying to restrain her own.

“Ev…” The voice cut in and out of focus, like she was underwater. “Baby.”

No.

“Love.”

No!

“Evelyn, look at me!”

She was jolted from her state. Her clawing stopped and her eyes snapped upwards, meeting the dark chocolate ones that she had grown up with. Full of love, and worry, not hate or disgust.

Evelyn sobbed, a disgusting sound that tore through her whole body like an explosion. “Mama.” Arms, strong and warm, wrapped Evelyn into a tight hug. 

Evelyn didn’t know how long her mom and her stayed like that, cuddled together on the floor, but she did know that she didn’t want it to end.

Her mother seemed reluctant to let go, continuing to whisper comforts and planting gentle kisses to Evelyn’s head long after she had calmed down.

Evelyn’s whole body ached and her mind was a mess of feelings that she couldn’t make sense of. She knew that she was safe, that she didn’t have to panic, but the nightmare had felt so real. The memory had been almost perfect.

“Sweetheart? Evelyn?”

Evelyn didn’t respond, just curled herself tighter against her mother.

“You said the nightmares were going away.” Her mother pushed in a soft voice, stroking Evelyn’s hair. “You said you were getting better.”

Evelyn mumbled incoherently and shook her head like a child. “I lied.” Her voice cracked. “It was the only way of g-getting out of therapy.”

“I thought therapy was helping.”

“I didn’t want to talk about it!” Evelyn snapped, jerking away from her mother's hold. “Therapy was hell! They could never understand!”

“Oh, baby.” Melinda cooed, her eyes soft with understanding. She didn’t yell or snap back, just stroked Evelyn’s cheek with a gentle hand. “I know, but if you had just said you didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t have forced you.”

Evelyn grumbled and wrapped herself back around her mother. She hadn’t meant to get angry. Her emotions were just way out of whack and she lashed out. Her mother didn’t blame her though and Evelyn was thankful for that.

“It wasn’t all bad though.” Her mother reasoned. “You liked seeing Andrew again, right? That was a good part.”

Evelyn shook her head and buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. She breathed a silent curse at her mother for always finding the good in something.

“Andrew was happy to see you.” Melinda kept pushing. “Did it help to talk to someone you knew?”

“...Yeah…” Evelyn relented, going limp against her mother. She sniffled and reluctantly dragged herself away from her mother. She fiddled with her hands nervously, avoiding eye contact as much as she could. “... I-I think I’m going to go to my b-bunk now…”

Her mother smiled and helped her to her feet. “Okay, baby. I’ll take it from here.”

Evelyn turned, making for the door, when her mom’s voice cut her off once more. “And go get that shoulder looked at.”

Evelyn spun around and took the medkit off the wall with a childlike huff. Acting like her old self was easier as each second passed. “I can do it myself.”

Her mother raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Didn’t you accidentally sew your hands together last time you tried that?”

Evelyn’s jaw gaped and a sound somewhere between a squeak and a growl tumbled out. “No!” She crossed her arms over her chest with a sheepish grin. “I got the needle stuck in the wound.”

“Point proven. Get over here.”


	15. 0-8-4 (Chapter 5)

It hadn’t taken her mother long to convince Evelyn to let her help. Evelyn was too tired to put up much of a fight and gave in much sooner than she thought she would.

Though Evelyn would never admit it, her mother had done a great job. Evelyn had barely felt anything when her mother sewed her shut. But, maybe that wasn’t a good thing.

Evelyn leaned backwards slowly, resting her head on her pillow with a deep sigh. She wouldn’t be sleeping, she knew that much. She shut her eyes, trying to tune out the chattering military force.

“You don’t look so good.”

“Thanks,” Evelyn smirked. “I know I look fabulous.”

The laughter that reached her ears had Evelyn melting further into her semi-uncomfortable bed.

“Did you have Simmons check that wound?” Skye asked, worry clear in her soft voice.

“No.” At the judgmental look from Skye, she held up a hand in mock surrender. “I had Agent May take a look at it.”

“You and Agent May are related, right?”

“Yeah, she’s my mother.”

“Wait, mother?” Skye gaped. “I thought she was your older sister or something! She looks way too young to be your mother.”

Evelyn chuckled and propped herself up on her elbows, swinging her feet around the side of the bed and forcing herself to a seated position. “Well, I’ll tell her you said that. She will be flattered.” Evelyn paused for a second before fixing a mock angry gaze on Skye. “Unless of course, you are insinuating that I look old.”

“No! No! Nothing like that!” Skye waved a hand dramatically as if to emphasize her point.

“Relax,” Evelyn teased. “I’m joking.”

There was a pause of comfortable silence for a few moments. Skye broke the silence softly.

“You know, you and your mother don’t really look alike.”

Evelyn shook her head. “No, I look more like my dad.”

“Your dad?”

Evelyn sighed and leaned back slightly, motioning for Skye to take a seat on the bed beside her. It wasn’t a malicious question, no harm was meant, and Evelyn respected that.

“I never knew my father.” Evelyn tilted her head and pursed her lips. “My mom said he took off before I was born. Didn’t want any part of us I guess.”

Skye didn’t say anything, but Evelyn could feel the waves of emotions rolling off her like a river. Skye knew exactly what it was like to not have a parent. She herself didn’t have any.

“He was white and tall, which is why I’m close to 5’7 and my mom is only 5’4. She’ll try and tell you that she’s 5’5, but she isn’t.” Evelyn smiled, feeling slightly uncomfortable baring her soul to a woman she barely knew. “He had dark blonde hair and green eyes. My mom says I have his eyes. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

“I never knew my parents either. I grew up in an orphanage with foster family after foster family.” Skye sighed heavily. “I always wonder about my parents.”

“I sometimes wonder, if I were to pass my father on the street, would I recognize him?” Evelyn tilted her head and watched as Skye’s face shifted in thought. “Would I know through some instinct or visual familiarity to myself that he’s my father?”

“Sometimes I wonder if I look like my parents.” Skye sighed.

Evelyn smiled softly. “Do you want to look like them?”

“Honestly?” Skye turned to her with a dry laugh. “I don’t know.”

“Well, until you do decide, here’s to being half breeds.” Evelyn held up an imaginary cup in a toast. “Evelyn Aurora Chao-Xing May and Skye No-Last-Name-Given.”

“Your mother named you Evelyn Aurora Chao-Xing May?” Skye laughed.

“Well, it was either that, April May or Mulan and those are just stupid."

“God, that is unfortunate.”

Evelyn chuckled. She looked down and fiddled with her hands nervously. Sharing had never really been a strong suit.

“Why don’t we get an actual drink, huh?” Skye offered, standing from the bed and extending her hand for Evelyn to take.

“Don’t have to ask me twice.”

~+~

Evelyn May didn’t drink often. When she did, it was usually a beer or two to maintain her cover. She didn’t enjoy drinking for the sake of drinking. A beer with friends was the only exception to this.

She didn’t mind when her friends had a few drinks, or when a celebration was in order. What she didn’t like was when someone was drunk off their ass.

Evelyn followed after Skye, and the bottle in her hand, as the hacker led the way through the Bus. Evelyn tilted her head when their path led them right to Ward.

“Hunger Games?” Skye guessed the title of the book Ward was reading.

“Matterhorn.” He looked up and pressed his lips into a thin line. “One of the hundreds of books my S.O gave me that I’m just getting around to.”

That caught Evelyn off guard. Ward didn’t strike her as a book type.

Skye gave Ward a questioning look and he sighed. “S.O? Supervising Officer.”

“Got it. Hackers have lingo too, but I’ll pick up yours. I feel like you and me, wrong foot.” She raised the bottle of liquor and shook it gently. “Can I buy you a drink?”

Ward gave her a tiny smile before turning his judgmental gaze on Evelyn. Evelyn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She smirked, daring Ward to say anything.

Skye, being the oblivious nerd she was, didn’t seem to notice the crackling tension. Instead, she plopped herself onto the couch next to Ward and patted the space next to her.

Evelyn smiled at Skye’s antics. “I’ll sit, but I won’t drink.” She muttered. “I think you two will drink enough for me.”

Ward narrowed his eyes at her and she sent a glare in his direction as she sat beside Skye.

Silence ensued. The only sound was the sloshing of liquid as Skye poured herself and Ward a glass of whatever strong-smelling liquor she brought. Evelyn didn’t mind the silence, but it was obvious that it made Ward feel uncomfortable. She was willing to sit in silence for hours or days if it meant making Ward uncomfortable.

“What I said before, when I said the uprising was… whatever I said, a good thing?” Skye broke the silence with a glance at Ward. “I don’t want you to think that I’m oblivious. What I was talking about was the tweets.”

Evelyn choked on her non-existent drink and doubled over with a wide-eyed look at Skye.

“Tweets?” Ward asked, his voice rising in pitch. “Are you trying to make this better or worse?”

“Peruvians have organized for the first time in decades. Thousands of suffering people who have never met uniting over a common idea? It’s mind-blowing. And, I don’t want to bring it up because I don’t want to see your hate face…” Skye shot him a nervous glance. “But, that’s what the Rising Tide is all about.”

“Okay.”

“Usually, one person doesn’t have the solution. But, 100 people with 1% of the solution, that’ll get it done.” She smiled at Ward and Evelyn felt herself smiling. “I think that’s beautiful, pieces solving a puzzle.”

Evelyn blinked and felt her jaw drop slightly. Skye had an interesting view of the world. Evelyn wished she could go back to when she had that innocent view of people.

“You and I see the world differently is all.” Ward sighed, taking a long sip from his drink.

“Why, because she sees the glass as half full and we see it as something to hit people with?” Evelyn asked, a serious expression on her face.

The silence that ensued had Evelyn giggling in her mind and relishing at the confused expressions on Ward and Skye’s faces.

“I’ve never been in a war zone during a war, until today. That was crazy. I take it you’ve seen that a lot?” Skye broke the silence.

Ward sighed again and Evelyn suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for him. He let out a grunt when he leaned forward to set the glass down. Evelyn felt her muscles tense as she got a glimpse of his blood-covered side.

“Wh – did you get shot?” Skye gasped.

“Skin deep. Nothing to worry about.” He muttered nonchalantly.

Evelyn perked up and turned her back slightly to Ward. She pulled down the shoulder of her jacket, exposing her swollen skin to the cool air. “Hey, twins!” She grunted.

Skye turned her shocked expression to Evelyn.

“You both got shot! Did that happen protecting us?”

“I said don’t worry about it.” Ward shook his head.

“Well, no wonder you were so pissed.” Skye leaned back into the couch. Evelyn snickered and bit her lip.

“I wasn’t pissed. I was trained to be the whole solution, to eliminate variables.” He shared a look with Evelyn. “And today, they keep adding up.”

“Evelyn is a specialist too, she doesn’t act like the whole solution.” Skye pointed out.

“Evelyn works with a team of specialists. She always has someone around her.”

“You know how I operate? Did someone do some reading in my file?” Evelyn cooed, clasping her hand over her heart in mock flattery. “I’m flattered, Monsieur Ward.”

Evelyn was shocked when Ward flashed a smile in her direction. It wasn’t a big smile, more like a small grin, but it was enough.

The Bus tilted around her and they were suddenly put into a steep bank.

“We’re turning.” Skye remarked.

“We’ve entered restricted airspace, so we have to follow certain flight paths, regulation.” Evelyn replied with a wave of her hand.

“This plane is capable of fully automated flight, but May has to be on the stick herself tonight.” Ward continued.

Skye let out a little laugh. “You’ve got an S.O., May’s got to be on the stick. Lots of good lingo on this plane.”

“Yeah.” Ward sighed heavily. “We just can’t seem to understand each other.”

Evelyn felt her eyes drawn around the plane, something setting her off. There were two soldiers sitting at one of the tables, playing with a deck of cards. She noticed, however, that their drinks were untouched.

One glance at Ward and a quiet clearing of her throat got his attention. She flicked her eyes towards the soldiers in a barely perceivable motion. Ward’s own eyes followed hers and she watched as he narrowed them in realization. Any tension between the two agents was momentarily forgotten.

“Skye, hand me the bottle.” Ward spoke in a calm voice.

“I’ll take that extra glass.” Evelyn nodded towards the third empty glass. “I think I’ll take that drink now.”

Skye turned a confused glance between the two super spies and laughed. She handed the glass to Evelyn before turning to hand the bottle to Ward. “Alright Turbo, but you’re still nursing the one you have.”

“I’m not the only one.” Ward looked over Skye’s shoulder towards the soldiers.

Skye’s eyes widened with understanding and she grew tense in her seat. Evelyn scratched her cheek and blinked at Ward twice. He gave her an understanding nod and began to smile and laugh, like nothing was wrong.

Ward made a sudden diving motion and thrust Skye out of the way just as two soldiers rushed towards them. Ward engaged with one, using the bottle as a weapon, while Evelyn smashed the glass over the second soldier's head.

The glass shattered, cutting into her own hand, but she barely felt the pain. She jabbed out a hand and struck the soldier straight in the throat. The soldier gasped and doubled over, breathing ragged.

Evelyn raised up on her toes and spun, digging her foot into the soldier's face, causing his head to collide with the table.

She whirled around when a cry of terror set her blood boiling. Another soldier had gotten a hold of Skye and held a gun to her head.

Before Evelyn could react, she felt a pounding pain at the base of her skull and the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote that conversation between Skye and Evelyn like seven times and I didn't like any of them. I'm still not entirely happy with the result, but I went with the best of the worst. Personally, I don't like that scene but it's better than the original version.


	16. 0-8-4 (Chapter 6)

Evelyn jerked awake suddenly, struggling against the restraints that were clamped tightly over her wrists. She scrunched her face up in concentration and hissed as the make-shift binders dug deep into her skin.

“This is all my fault.” Fitz sighed. “I should have learned kung-fu.”

Evelyn flashed Fitz a smile. She ceased her struggling long enough to take in their predicament. They were stuck, tied and bound in a small corner of the garage/cargo bay. She bit her lip when her gaze was drawn to her mother.

Melinda May was passed out, but Evelyn couldn’t see any immediate sign of injury. It must have been a gas weapon to knock her mother out so completely.

“Oh, yeah, but I shouldn’t have pushed you into the field in the first place.” Simmons excused. “You weren’t ready.”

The team began to speak over each other and Evelyn felt her frustration growing.

“It was my job to make a proper threat assessment.” Ward sighed.

“Uh, we – we weren’t ready.” Fitz argued.

“This wouldn’t have happened if Agent May wasn’t on the stick.” Skye growled. Evelyn froze and the talking ceased as the team turned to look at Melinda May. “She would’ve busted out some of her ninja know-how.”

“Agent May?” Fitz laughed. “No. No, no, she transferred from administration.”

“Well, I’ve seen her destroy a guy, so…”

The team looked over to Ward for an explanation and he sighed heavily. “You’ve heard of The Cavalry?”

Evelyn froze, saying that name was not a good idea.

“Yeah.”

Skye just looked confused and Evelyn couldn’t blame her.

“Everyone in the academy talks about st –”

“She’s the Calvary?” Fitz-Simmons breathed together.

They all looked quickly over to where May was laying when they heard her voice.

“I told you never to call me that.” Melinda May groaned, tilting herself to sit upright.

Simmons giggled like a schoolgirl and a bright smile graced her face. “I can’t believe it. Oh, we’re sure to get out of here now.” She leaned around Skye to address May. “Um, how do we get out of here?”

“We can’t go through the doors. They’re bolted, tied to the pressurization lines.” May groaned. “You two geniuses have nothing?”

Evelyn bit her lip and took in the surroundings. She had an idea, but she wasn’t very interested in actually executing it. It would have to be a last resort.

She was very attached to her wrist.

“Yeah, well, it’s hard to concentrate in these intense situations.” Fitz mumbled

Ward spoke softly to Fitz with a compassion that took Evelyn by surprise. “Hey, don’t freeze up. Take a breath. You don’t need to come up with the whole solution.” He sent a look towards Skye and Evelyn saw the gleam in his eyes. “Just part of it, right?”

Skye nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Pieces solving a puzzle.”

~+~

“Well, that’s clearly the worst idea I’ve heard yet.” Simmons fought.

“But, it could work.” Skye pointed out.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. This was a horrible plan, and that was coming from her, master of terrible plans.

“Reyes is gonna kill us the minute we land, regardless, and blame it on rebels.” Ward hyped. “This way we have a fighting chance. I’ll take it. What’s first?”

Fitz fiddled nervously and Evelyn shifted her weight, running a finger along her wrist bone. She turned to her mother and a silent signal resonated between the two.

“We can’t get upstairs without going into the lab.” Fitz replied.

“And the only way to release the lab doors is from upstairs.” Simmons piped up

“The first thing is we’re tied to the cargo door, so unless –” Skye’s voice cut off.

Evelyn breathed heavily and screwed her eyes shut as she jerked her wrist to the side, putting as much pressure on it as she could. She heard the crack, felt the pop, and then felt the restraints fall away from her misshapen wrist.

The team flinched as a second pop echoed through the air, effectively cutting off any more conversation.

“What the hell was that?” Fitz whimpered, avoiding looking at Evelyn and Melinda.

Ward groaned, clearly uncomfortable, and shifted. “Their wrists.”

~+~

Evelyn could hear the footsteps above her head, the soldier patrolling the catwalk that overlooked the garage. She breathed heavily, her wrist radiating in pain. She should have dislocated the other one, that way she would have had an injured shoulder and wrist on one arm, not two.

Ignoring the pain, Evelyn hauled herself up onto the catwalk, swinging her legs she vaulted herself up and over the railing, landing silently behind the two soldiers.

Her mother was hot on her heels as they approached the soldiers. Evelyn took a flying leap, wrapping her arms around the soldier, kicking out his leg and throwing him over the railing in one smooth, practiced motion.

She followed him over and landed beside her mother. She gripped her wrist and with a simple motion, cracked it back into place with a slight groan of pain. She exhaled in relief as her wrist thanked her for fixing it.

“What’s next?” Melinda asked.

Evelyn cocked a side smile at the disbelieving looks on Fitz-Simmons’ and Skye’s faces. Ward had a small smile on his face and Evelyn forced herself to meet his eyes. A silent message passed between them and Evelyn broke into a real smile. It was a simple message, but one that they hadn’t realized they needed.

I’m sorry.

~+~

The team circled around each other, forming a makeshift huddle in the middle of the garage.

“Okay, we’re sure, right? Everyone’s sure?” Skye questioned for the millionth time.

“We’re all on board.” Simmons promised.

“Yep. Let’s do this fast.” Fitz spoke at the same time.

“No turning back, no freezing up.” Ward reminded.

“Because if we do then…” Fitz nodded his head, it was pretty obvious.

“All of us die.” Evelyn smirked.

“We know.” Simmons’ voice shook.

Ward glanced at all of the team, lingering on Skye for a bit longer. “All right.”

The sound of a car engine revving got their attention. Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest with a smirk. May was standing at the driver’s side door of the SUV, her face twisted into a frown.

"You guys talk a lot.”

She got into the car and closed the door. Evelyn’s eyes widened and she gripped Skye and Jemma, leading them away from the lab door. Simmons and Fitz panicked as Ward swept them both past him and out of the way. May put the SUV into drive, sending it into the glass doors of the lab. The glass shattered easily and Evelyn staggered as the plane shook with the impact.

If we weren’t noticed before, we definitely are now.


	17. 0-8-4 (Chapter 7)

Evelyn reached up to support Jemma as she hopped onto the table in the middle of the lab. Evelyn rested a hand on the small of Simmons’ back and one on her hip, keeping her from losing her balance. Jemma reached up to unscrew a vent on the ceiling.

The grate clattered to the ground and Evelyn smiled. She reached to take Simmons’ hand and help her down.

Instead, Jemma tilted backwards in a trust fall motion. Evelyn had just enough time to scoop Jemma into a bridal carry before she could hit her head. Evelyn growled and placed Jemma back on her feet.

“You’re lucky I caught you.” Evelyn muttered.

Jemma ignored her comment and turned to share a look with Fitz. Evelyn watched as Fitz tapped a tablet and one of his drones floated out of a briefcase and up through the open air vent.

“Which one did you send this time?”

“Sneezy. He has the most power.” Fitz bounced from foot to foot.

Evelyn squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. She turned and rifled through some of the cupboards, looking for a rope of some kind.

She handed a rope, and some random pieces of equipment, like a seat belt, to Ward. He got to work attaching the rope and other things around the waists of everybody.

When everyone was secured together, Fitz spoke in a grim tone. “Simmons, forget what I said. This will be the moment we regret.”

The tablet beeped and Evelyn held her breath nervously. The plane was suddenly rocked and the doors to the upstairs lounge area opened.

When the group passed through the doors and up the stairs into the common area, Evelyn was shocked by the amount of pressure. She shouldn’t have been surprised, there was a giant hole in the side of the plane. The pressure and pull towards the hole was nothing more than science.

The team moved together, always having two people holding onto something steady before another person let go to move. It was the only way they weren’t going to lose anybody. The makeshift rope wouldn’t do much against the force.

“I’ll take care of the soldiers!” Ward yelled over the wind. “You go find the 0-8-4!”

“What about Coulson?” Evelyn called back, gripping the wall tightly.

“Let’s hope he can handle himself!”

Ward launched himself across the room, knocking a gun away from one soldier.

“Keep moving!” Evelyn urged. “We need to secure the 0-4-8 before May takes the cockpit!”

Melinda May had gone the secondary way, through the back and all the technical servers to climb up the access hatch and come out right at the cockpit. Not that it would do them much good if they were all sucked out of the plane.

The rope tugged uncomfortably against Evelyn as the team got further and further away from Ward. His struggles yanked the rope to and fro, causing Fitz to lose his balance.

Evelyn yanked him to his feet and was about to make a dive towards the 0-8-4 when the plane suddenly entered a nosedive. She jumped and grabbed onto a door frame, feeling the weight of not one, not two, but three grown adults hanging from her waist.

Evelyn groaned against the pain and her shoulder screamed with agony, exploding into white-hot pain. The plane levelled off and Evelyn managed to stagger her way back towards the group, her mind loopy with pain.

She had just enough sense to see Jemma pull the 0-8-4 from the wall and for Skye to unclip herself from the team.

Whoever decided that Skye, the rogue hacker who acted on impulse without any thought as to the consequences, should be first in the line of ropes, was an idiot.

And that person was Evelyn.

Evelyn reached blindly towards Skye’s retreating form, a panic rising in her throat.

“Evelyn!” Simmons cried. “Come on, trust her!”

She turned to lead the group back towards the staircase down into the lab. Suddenly, she felt a sharp tug and a thump as another person fell.

She whirled around to see a soldier gripping the part of the rope that Skye had detached from. He tugged on it, bringing Jemma closer and closer.

“Fitz!” She called, desperately reaching for her lab partner's hand.

Fitz gripped her hand tightly and pulled. Evelyn gripped the rope and yanked, dragging Fitz and Simmons closer to her and away from the soldier. She pulled the two scientists close to her body and fumbled around with the rope.

“Cut him loose!” Jemma cried.

Fitz yanked the carabiner from Jemma’s waist, cutting both the soldier and Ward free from the rope. The soldier lost his balance and flew through the air. Evelyn flinched as the soldier collided with Ward, knocking them both to the ground.

“Sorry, Ward!” 

Evelyn dragged Fitz and Simmons around the half wall separating the common room from the doorway down into the garage. She forced them down into a crouch and leaned herself over the wall, cutting herself loose from the group.

“Stay here!” She hollered over the rushing wind.

Evelyn vaulted herself up and over the half wall. Halfway over the wall, the pressure in the cabin changed and Evelyn tumbled to her knees as she landed. She looked up, shocked. The hole in the side of the plane had been plugged by a… life raft?

Evelyn raised an eyebrow and slowly pushed herself to her feet. Eyeing the yellow floatation device. Her gaze drifted over to Skye, who still held the package for the raft.

“I read the safety pamphlet.” Skye shrugged, offering Ward a hand.

“I think you might be the first.”

Evelyn turned to check on Fitz-Simmons and sighed with relief when she saw that nobody looked to be badly hurt. They were both pretty shaken, and Jemma was holding onto Fitz for dear life, but they were both still alive.

Sounds like a win to me.

She turned on her heel and shakily made her way across the common area and into the conference room. She met Skye, Ward and Coulson halfway.

Coulson led them back out into the common area and collapsed onto the couch, panting with exertion.

“No other way in, huh?” He directed the question towards the team. He looked around the plane with a frown. “I was just starting to warm up to this place.”

“The 0-8-4 is cooling and stable. But we should call H.Q. and get it to the slingshot as soon as possible.” Fitz pointed out, his voice still shaky.

Coulson turned and looked into the conference room down at Camilla who was tied to the pole. She slowly looked up at him, defeated.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, she didn’t like traitors.

“I told you they were good.” Coulson remarked cockily.

He gave her a little grin and Ward, Skye, Fitz and Simmons gave each other relieved looks.

Evelyn turned away from the group and hurried across the plane, towards the cockpit.


	18. 0-8-4 (Chapter 8)

The Slingshot  
Location: Classified.

Evelyn brought the Bus down with the vertical thrusters into a stationary landing. That was another cool thing about the Bus, it didn’t need a runway. The Bus’ thrusters could be rotated in a way that it acted like a propulsion system, similar to that of a helicopter, but with jet engines instead of propellers.

It made it easy for sudden course changes.

Evelyn reached up and flicked a switch to recalibrate the stabilizers. She was alone in the cockpit, her mother had trusted her to land them safely at the Slingshot. The Bus bounced gently as it set down on the ground. She pulled back the throttle to a neutral position and listened as the Bus quieted around her.

One final flick of a switch and the Bus’ engines cut out, the post-flight information flashing on the screen in front of Evelyn.

She did a quick check of the flight systems and lowered the ramp, allowing the S.H.I.E.L.D agents to enter the Bus and take the 0-8-4 away. The Bus groaned a complaint and Evelyn reached out a hand to stroke the dashboard of the controls.

“I know baby.” She cooed. “We’ll get you all patched up in no time.”

She stood up from the pilots seat and exited the cockpit, shutting the door tightly behind her. She had enough time to go back to her bunk for some relaxation before she was needed.

~+~

Evelyn was sitting in her bunk, listening to the hum of the engines from the Bus. She liked to feel the vibrations, to hear the echo as the machines worked together towards a common goal. She closed her eyes and the noise cut out, leaving her in blissful silence. She could feel the vibrations better now, feel as the plane idled on the runway.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to match her breathing to the vibrations. Quite a challenge seeing as it was impossible to breathe in and out at the same time.

Resting her head on the wall granted her more feeling of the vibrations. She relished the fact that they resonated, seemingly from deep within her bones. She had the urge to let go again but she managed to push it down without much trouble.

Her peace was interrupted by two stronger vibrations, coming from behind her. She turned and looked up in surprise, not expecting to see her mother in the doorway.

Evelyn closed her eyes for another second and when she opened them, she was bombarded with a deafening sound. It felt as if every inch of water on the planet suddenly raced into her ears and roared with the ferocity of a thousand lions. She flinched and resisted the urge to groan in pain. She parted her jaws and let out a pained breath.

The pain died down and Evelyn was left in regular noise.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered. She forced a smile onto her face. “Were you trying to talk to me.”

Her mother shook her head and jerked a finger behind her. Evelyn leaned to the side, trying to see past her mother. She tilted her head and her brows knitted together when she saw Skye.

“Hey, uh, I was just trying to get you, and you weren’t responding,” Skye explained nervously. “I didn’t think I should surprise you, so I saw your mother coming and asked her. I know she can take a punch.”

Evelyn chuckled and a real smile wiggled onto her face. “Yeah, probably was the best move.”

“So, what was that about? Did you not hear me? I called pretty loudly.”

Evelyn bit her lip and shook her head. “Sorry, I guess you wouldn’t know. Not a problem!” She excused quickly upon seeing Skye’s downtrodden expression. “I’m deaf.”

“L-like partially, or...:”

“No, no, completely deaf.” Evelyn tried to keep the grimace off her face as she was bombarded by memories and images. “I just turned off my... hearing aids, I guess you could call them.”

“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Evelyn shook her head. She did mind, quite a bit actually, but Skye deserved to know. She could have just given Skye her file and told her to read it, but something told Evelyn that it was better if it came from her.

“More than a year ago, I was on a mission. I won’t bore you with the details, but it went bad.” Evelyn let out a shaky breath. “I was missing until two months ago. During that time I was with these scientists. I don’t know what they did, but one morning I woke up and I was completely deaf. It was only about a month into my lovely stay.” She chuckled dryly. “Fitz-Simmons designed an implant for my brain that allows me to hear. I don’t know the science behind it, but sometimes I like to turn it off, to just not hear anything.”

Skye didn’t respond immediately and Evelyn averted her gaze. She was ready to get up and leave when Skye spoke in a quiet, soft voice. “...Does it hurt?”

“Yes,” Evelyn admitted. “The implants always hurt when they are active.”

Evelyn tensed when Skye lunged and wrapped her in a hug. Evelyn shut her eyes and forced herself to return the hug. Slowly, she felt herself melting into the warmth and burying her face into Skye’s shoulder, breathing in her sweet vanilla scent.

Evelyn pulled away, feeling intoxicated despite not having drank anything. She smiled a dopey smile and averted her gaze to fiddle with her hands in her lap. One of Skye’s hands was on her shoulder and the other was still rubbing soothing circles in her back.

“Fitz-Simmons are planning something downstairs, that’s why I came to get you.” Skye breathed.

Evelyn hummed in response, not keen on breaking the moment. She sighed when Skye stood up first and offered her hand almost shyly.

Evelyn took the offered hand and let Skye lead her from her room and across the common room towards the garage.

Skye practically galloped down the spiral staircase into the garage and met Coulson as he was bent over Lola, fussing with her paint job. “Not a scratch, but your plane’s totalled. I hope S.H.I.E.L.D. insurance covers hijackings.”

Coulson looked up and nodded a greeting to Evelyn before turning to address Skye with an amused smile. “Sure, under incidentals.”

Skye laughed, the sound causing Evelyn’s heart to flutter. Dear God was this girl everything she could ever want.

“What exactly am I signing up for?” Skye craned her next to shoot a smile towards Evelyn.

“Like I said, front-row seat to the craziest show on Earth.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect the show to get this crazy this fast all for an object you’re just going to destroy.” Skye argued.

“Slingshot is protocol.” Evelyn piped up. 

“A weapon like the 0-8-4 is too dangerous for any person or country to have. People like Reyes would always be after it.” Coulson agreed.

He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wet it with his tongue. He dragged the handkerchief across Lola’s hood.

“What happened with Reyes, anyway?” Skye asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s being held at a S.H.I.E.L.D. detainment facility. I expect the Peruvian government will negotiate for her release. She probably won’t spend much time in jail.” Coulson shook his head, not getting Skye’s meaning.

“No, I mean, what happened with you and Reyes?” She gave him a small smile. “You guys totally did it back in the day, right?”

If Evelyn had been drinking at that point in time, her drink would have been all over Lola as she choked out a laugh.

Coulson looked up at Skye and raised his eyebrows. “That’s classified.”

Skye laughed as Coulson walked away.

Skye pulled out her phone and subconsciously leaned against Evelyn. Evelyn reached out and wrapped an arm around Skye’s shoulders holding her tight. She leaned against Lola and sighed as Skye rested her head on her shoulder. Skye giggled and wrapped her arms tightly around Evelyn. It was very clear that this girl was a hugger. Evelyn stroked Skye’s hair in gentle smooth motions, listening in as Ward and her mother began their own conversation.

“Looks like Skye might end up as more than a consultant, despite our reservations.” Ward pointed out. “She could turn into a solid asset, with some serious work.”

“Well, if she wants to be a field agent, she’ll need a supervising officer, someone disciplined, someone good.”

Evelyn looked up to see her mother staring at Ward as she spoke. Evelyn tilted her head. Ward, a supervising officer, she could just see it.

Ward nodded in agreement, still not having taken his eyes off Skye. He turned and met her mother's gaze and his eyes widened momentarily.

“All right.” He nodded. “I’ll do it.”

Melinda nodded and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Just to clarify, you were, uh, talking about me, right?” Ward questioned softly.

May smiled but said nothing.

Evelyn looked up and let Skye go as Fitz-Simmons came trotting down the spiral staircase. Jemma held a beer in her hand and Fitz was carrying a cooler, obviously full of more beer.

“We blew up a plane.” Fitz laughed.

“I had a new experience.” Simmons argued weakly.

“Eat that, Professor Vaughn.”

“You had a new experience. But it was new for all of us.”

They both had smiles as they headed out of the plane, sitting down on the ramp, letting the cooler drop beside them.

“They’re happy.” Melinda commented.

Fitz turned to look back towards the rest of the team and motioned them to come forward. “Hey, come on. You guys don’t want to miss this.”

Evelyn followed behind as Melinda, Ward and Skye all stepped forward to settle themselves next to the science nerds.

“So, it’ll take about 180 days to reach the sun.” Fitz started to ramble, explaining the Slingshot Program. “Now, yes, of course, it would have been faster if they’d use hydrogen-fueled APUs, but they’re having fun.”

Simmons reached into the cooler and pulled out beers for the others.

“How many of those have you guys had?” Skye chuckled.

Simmons offered one to Skye who turned her down. Evelyn raised an eyebrow at Skye but accepted the beer when it was offered to her. May and Ward both took their own beers. 

Simmons scoffed. “Skye, it’s important, when in the field, to unwind from time to time.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. Is that so?

“Yeah, yeah,” Fitz agreed. “Especially after a hard day of everyone almost dying.”

Coulson walked up behind Evelyn and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and managed not to throw Coulson over her shoulder and to the ground. She glared at him and he sent an apologetic smile her way.

“Which doesn’t happen every day, right?” Simmons laughed, trying to convince herself. “It’s an anomaly, an irregularity. Not the norm.”

Her enthusiasm diminished when she saw Coulson.

“Speaking of not the norm,” Coulson put a hand on his hip. “Whose idea was it to blow a hole in the plane?”

Evelyn bit her lip.

“May said that the doors were tied to the pressurization so I thought –” Skye began but Evelyn cut her off.

“So, we thought it was the only way to release them.

“It was everyone’s idea, sir.” Ward agreed.

“Yeah, quite genius, really.” Fitz-Simmons spoke in unison.

There was a beat of silence and Evelyn feared Coulson was going to kick at least one person off of the plane. “Nice work.” He nodded eventually.

A voice crackled over a loud speaker and Evelyn kicked her feet up and brought the beer slowly to her lips.

“Oh, time for blastoff.” Fitz pinched the bridge of his nose, giving his voice a funny sound. “Launching in three, two…”

An ignition of flame caught Evelyn’s eye and she leaned back to watch as a rocket made liftoff.

“The trajectory will take it beyond the Lagrange Point so that it doesn’t hit Herschel.” Fitz rambled.

“And there haven’t been any coronal mass ejections, so it shouldn’t lose telemetry.” Simmons added as if it was common knowledge.

“Guys,” Ward sighed. “English.”

Evelyn turned a smile on the group and took another sip of her beer. She couldn’t help but appreciate the simplicity of it all. The smiles on everyone's faces and the lighthearted feeling that came with it, it was all perfect.

There hadn’t been enough perfect in Evelyn’s life recently.


	19. Part 3: The Asset

Part 3: The Asset 

Evelyn tried not to worry much. It didn’t often help in any way. But, it seemed that tonight was going to be a night to worry.

She hadn’t slept all night, and it was already 4:45 am. Her brain just wouldn’t quiet down long enough to fall asleep. She had tried everything; shutting off her hearing aids, letting go with her powers, trying to tire herself out by seeing how far she could push her powers (though it had hurt, her record was hearing a man’s heartbeat from 5 miles away), and even, surprisingly, stretching. Nothing was working for her.

She didn’t know what else to try. It wasn’t as though sleepless nights were new to her. She had had her fair share of those. She knew that she would be fine. Her body would function normally, especially if she was given a mission to complete.

She sighed and abandoned her quest for sleep and bed all together. She pulled open the sliding door to her room and stepped into the living room and stretched. She followed the walkway around the conference room and towards the cockpit.

Before she came up to the cockpit, she turned and continued towards the small kitchen that existed just off to the side of the cockpit.

She leaned against the counter with a huff and rubbed at her eyes roughly. Mumbling to herself, she pushed herself off the counter and opened one of the overhanging cupboards. She reached in and removed the tea packets.

Like her mother, Evelyn wasn’t a big fan of coffee, never had been. Even during her exams and long nights of studying at the S.H.I.E.L.D Academy, she never drank coffee. Perhaps it was because her mother had never kept coffee in the house when Evelyn was growing up.

She plucked the sweet oolong tea and filled the teapot in a swift practiced moment. She opened the packet of tea and inhaled the sweet aroma as the water in the pot boiled.

She reached into another cupboard and fished around the back for a moment before her hand closed around the treasure she was searching for. She removed the mug with a slight hum and turned to pour the newly boiled water into the mug.

She let the tea steep for a few minutes and pulled out a chair at the island to sit on and rested the hot mug in front of her. She didn’t need anything else in her tea. If it hadn’t already been sweetened by the mixture, she would have added a little bit of sugar, but the tea didn’t need it.

She blew on the tea a couple of times before raising the mug carefully to her lips and taking a sip. The boiling liquid slithered down her throat and she sighed in contentment.

“Trouble sleeping?”

Evelyn didn’t raise her gaze from her mug and instead took another sip before answering. “Not really.” She lied easily. “I just wanted to try and get back into the habit of Tai Chi in the morning.”

Her mother hummed and walked around the island to pour herself a mug of boiling water and dug through the cupboards, pulling out a jasmine tea for herself. She put the tea into her mug and let it steep, carrying it back towards Evelyn.

“You can join me.” Melinda hummed. “I still do Tai Chi every morning. We can make it a thing, like we did when you were younger.”

Evelyn smiled. The thought of doing Tai Chi with her mother was very appealing. “I’d like that,” Evelyn mumbled into the rim of her mug. “But first, tea.”

She sipped her tea before turning a humorous gaze on her mother. Her mother smiled and took a sip of her own tea. “Priorities.” Her mother agreed. “Tea always comes first.”

Evelyn felt herself really smiling, something that didn’t often happen. The May’s were masters of the half side smile, but this was a smile that actually reached her ears.

When Evelyn had sipped the last bit of her tea, she stood to deposit her mug into the sink and ran the water to clean it out. Once satisfied with her work, she dried the mug and replaced it at the back of the cupboard where she had found it.

The slight kick of caffeine hit her immediately and she could feel a new alertness in her muscles. She really needed to do some Tai Chi.

“So,” Her mother stood from her seat. “I heard your conversation with Skye, about your time away.”

Evelyn tensed but forced herself to relax after a moment. “Yeah? What about it, I told you what happened with my hearing.”

“No, I know.” Her mother held up a hand in a calming gesture. “I just meant that you don’t open up like that often. It took weeks with Andrew for you to even say a single word to him.”

Evelyn remembered that time. She had been shocked into silence from her experience and it had taken weeks of therapy with Andrew for her to say anything, and more weeks before she talked about what happened.

“You’ve known Skye for less than a week and you’ve already opened up to her with some personal details.” Her mother continued nonchalantly. “So, what is it about her?”

Evelyn paused. She didn’t have an answer. What was it about Skye that she immediately trusted? That made her want to open up? 

“I don’t know.” She answered truthfully. “She just seems to share in the trauma. There’s something about her that makes me feel safe.”

Melinda smiled; a real smile that caught Evelyn off guard. “That’s all I needed to hear.” She murmured softly. “If she makes you feel safe, then I trust her.”

Those words were all Evelyn needed to hear. She could have broken down into tears right then and there, but she didn’t. Tears pricked at the edge of her vision but she forced herself to blink them away.

Evelyn May didn’t cry very often. But when she did, it was like the biblical flood all over again.


	20. The Asset (Chapter 1)

“I have no control over it!” Evelyn argued. “It just happens sometimes!”

“Is that what you’ll tell S.H.I.E.L.D if they find out?” Her mother snapped.

Evelyn glared and took in a deep huff of breath. It was supposed to be a relaxing morning of tea, Tai Chi and flying with her mother. What it had become was a full-blown argument over what she could do.

“S.H.I.E.L.D has the Index for people like you, powered people.” Melinda sighed, her voice dropping slightly. “If you can’t control your powers, you’ll be confined to an apartment with a babysitter.”

“Remind me how much trouble you could get into if S.H.I.E.L.D found out that you knew of a powered person and didn’t say anything.” Evelyn retorted, clenching her jaws.

She wasn’t normally so defensive, but she knew that her mother was winning and it pissed her off.

Her mother didn’t reply at first and Evelyn felt a surge of accomplishment in her chest. It vanished with a few simple words. “I’d do anything for you. I would walk away from S.H.I.E.L.D if it kept you safe.”

Evelyn’s heart cracked. That was it. All it took was a promise that hadn’t been spoken since she was a child, and her mother had won. Evelyn knew that she would do the same, and would give up anything for her mother.

There was only one person on this planet that she really cared about after all.

“I-I’m sorry,” Evelyn muttered, her gaze downcast. “I try, but I can’t control it.”

“You can.” Her mother pressed, resting a hand on Evelyn’s shoulder. “I’ll help you. We can practice every morning after Tai Chi.”

That was the thing about their arguments; they never lasted long. It wasn’t too long after voices were raised that one or the other apologized. Evelyn liked that. Her mother would never stay mad at her for long, even if it was her fault, and Evelyn knew that they would be back to normal within a day or two.

It made it hard to stay mad at her mother about anything.

“Why don’t you go get some rest.” Her mother suggested softly. “You didn’t sleep at all last night.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t said anything about not sleeping.

Her mother smiled and a soft chuckle escaped her lips. “I may not have super hearing, but I can hear you tossing and turning in your bed.”

Evelyn smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry, Mama.”

Melinda leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Evelyn’s forehead. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach, but Evelyn didn’t mind.

“I’ll switch out flying duty with you at noon.”

~+~

Her mother was right, Evelyn needed to learn control. She couldn’t just let her powers lash out whenever. She needed more time to practice and train herself.

It was like fighting. She hadn’t learned how to take down someone twice her size overnight, it had taken years. She didn’t expect that learning to control her powers would be much different.

She brought herself to her center, controlling her breathing and tuning out any distractions. It was the same place she went to when she got into a fight. Calm and collected, it was easier to make clear-headed, split-second decisions that could mean life or death.

She didn’t expect to just keel over a die right in her room, but having the feeling of control over it was almost intoxicating. She really needed to thank her mom for teaching her everything she knew.

Evelyn took her time letting go this time. Usually, she liked the rush of adrenaline that came with suddenly letting her powers free, but she needed to work on controlling her powers and not letting them take over.

It was a strange, although not unpleasant, feeling. It sent a tingling sensation up from her toes all the way to her forehead. She quite liked the control she felt.

She focused her might first into her nose. She parted her jaws slightly and took a deep sniff of her own room. There was nothing special in her own room so she roamed the plane in search of what she did not know.

She could smell the path that each member of the team had walked that day, could practically see the scent trail in her mind. Ward and Skye had gone downstairs into the garage early in the morning and the faint smell of sweat told Evelyn that they were training.

Fitz and Simmons had spent their day in the lab. All the chemicals mixing together made Evelyn’s nose burn and her mind became slightly jumbled. She really hated the smell of medicine and hospitals.

Next, she focused her mind into her ears. She stretched them and the first thing she heard was the wind howling against the Bus’ wings. She roamed the outside of the plane first before delving inside.

She lingered on each heartbeat of each member for no more than a moment and transferred to the next. Coulson was upstairs in his office, Fitz and Simmons were in the lab, Ward was in the garage, Skye was in her room and Melinda was in the cockpit.

Evelyn felt a sense of security at knowing where everyone was at all times.

She forced herself back into her body and was met with silence. She had to restart her implants because they always shorted out whenever she used her powers.

That was another weird thing. When she wasn’t using her powers, she was completely deaf, but as soon as she activated her powers, she could hear. Without the implants there was complete silence without her powers and overwhelming noise with her powers, there was no in-between. The implants gave her a middle between both sides.

She stood up from her bed and stretched. She felt stiff, despite having only sat in the same position for less than five minutes. A wave of exhaustion washed over her and she felt dizzy. She swayed on her feet and had to sit back down on the bed for a moment so she didn’t collapse.

“Whoa.” She muttered to herself, trying to blink away the dizzy spell.

She breathed deeply for a few more minutes and counted her heartbeat until it rested under 55 beats per minute, right where it should be.

Despite knowing that she only had about a half an hour before she was meant to relieve her mother at the controls, Evelyn didn’t have much of a desire to get ready or head to the cockpit early. Instead, she tied her hair up into a high ponytail and dressed in her workout clothes.

Hopefully, Ward wouldn’t mind if she used one of his punching bags.


	21. The Asset (Chapter 2)

Despite her best effort to keep her hair tied back tightly, a single strand of hair would not cooperate. She eventually gave up and let it hang down the side of her face as she traversed the plane and descended the spiral staircase.

“Ward,” She called before she had even reached the bottom. Ward stopped punching his bag and took a step back, looking back towards Evelyn. “You got a spare bag?”

Ward pointed towards the wall where a bunch of punching bags were stacked against it. “Thank you.” Evelyn mused in a sing-song voice and picked up one of the bags.

Initially, she struggled to get the bag up and onto the hook, but eventually, the bag fell into place with a thunk and Evelyn took a step back. She dug into her workout bag and pulled out the tape to wrap her hand.

In quick, practiced movements, Evelyn expertly wrapped her hands and planted her feet, squaring up to the bag.

She started out slow, quick jabs and crosses that would hopefully catch an enemy off guard, but slowly she picked up the pace and threw a little kickboxing into her routine.

She kept her hands up, protecting her face from an imaginary attack and spun on her heel, lashing out with a side kick. The bag shuddered and Evelyn threw a quick combo of jabs, followed by a good punch and ended with a roundhouse kick.

She huffed and took a step back, sweat dripping down her shoulders and neck. The little strand of hair was glued to the side of her face and she reached up a hand to tuck it behind her ear.

“You’re late.” Ward’s reprimand had Evelyn twisting in place to see Skye trotting slowly, ever so slowly, down the staircase.

“I’m tired from the mornings workout.” Skye huffed, dropping onto the balls of her feet on each step. “I thought I was joining S.H.I.E.L.D, not 24-hour fitness.”

Ward motioned for her to step up to the punching bag and Evelyn turned back to hers.

“It’s called relative strength training, starting with the basics.” Ward sighed. The ruffle of fabric told Evelyn that he was fussing over Skye’s taped hands. “And next time you do 15 push-ups for every minute you’re late.”

“Fine, Mr. Fun Machine. Better than pull-ups.” Skye added as an afterthought. “I don’t ever want to do another pull-up again.”

“You find yourself hanging off the edge of a building 20 stories up, you’re gonna want to do at least one.” Ward pointed out cockily.

Evelyn snickered and jabbed out her hand in a cross-cut.

“Stand here.” Ward helped position Skye and pulled her hands up near her face. “Jab, cross, like Evelyn.”

As if on cue, Evelyn jabbed out her weaker hand and struck the bag with enough force to send a ripple up her arm.

“10 minutes?” Evelyn offered.

“10 minutes.” Ward agreed.

Skye hit the bag with weak jabs and Evelyn couldn’t help the grimace that ended up on her face. Ward had his work cut out for him

“You know the hardest part about boxing?” Ward asked out of the blue.

“Getting punched in the face?” Skye guessed and Evelyn smirked at the response.

Ward clearly wasn’t as entertained with Skye’s antics. It was probably a good thing that Evelyn wasn’t Skye’s S.O. “Keeping your hands up.” He replied dryly, gripping Skye’s wrists and bringing her hands up.

Skye huffed in frustration and dropped her hands to her side. “Why do I even have to do this? I’m sure Fitz-Simmons’ supervising officer didn’t make them do this muscle stuff.” She weakly hit the bag a few times while speaking, Ward just stared at her.

“You said you wanted to be a field agent, like Coulson.” Ward pointed out. “Well, if you’d like to switch disciplines…” He looked over to the lab where both Fitz and Simmons were fiddling with their science toys. “What did your S.O give you guys for morning drills?”

Fitz sprayed an aerosol can and pointed a laser towards Simmons. Simmons ignored his antics and instead turned to Ward with an excited face.

“Oh, atomistic attribute drills.”

While she continued to speak Ward nodded his head and looked at Skye, she, in response, weakly hit the bag again.

“Yeah, we’d name the mechanical, chemical, thermal –” Simmons continued.

“Electrical properties of materials.” Fitz cut in.

Evelyn smiled as Skye’s face fell with each passing attribute. “Okay, okay, they made your point.”

As she turned back towards the bag, Ward walked around the other side to hold it for her. “There will come a moment when you have to commit to this or bail,” Ward explained. Evelyn remembered having the same talk with her mother before she was even an agent. “Every field agent has a defining moment. Ask Coulson. When you have to make the hard call to either dedicate yourself to this or to curl up in a ball and run.”

Skye stopped hitting the bag and looked at Ward with a teasing grin. “How can you run if you’re curled up in a ball?” She started to hit the bag again.

“It’s my job as your S.O. to make sure you don’t die before then.” While Ward continued to talk to her, he raised her arms up higher and closer to her face. “Come on.”

Evelyn focused her attention back on her own bag and a few seconds of silence passed before Skye spoke up again.

“So what was yours, Agent Ward?”

Ward sighed. “10 minutes.”

“Your defining moment?” Skye pushed.

Ward stayed silent for a moment and Skye stopped hitting the bag, focusing all her attention on Ward.

“Come on, tell me. I want to know.” She hit the bag again weakly. “I can get Coulson to give you some of that truth serum. You could spill your little heart out to me again.”

Evelyn chuckled. She was teasing, but it seemed that Ward was taking it all seriously.

“You mean my level one overshare that miraculously got you to cooperate?” Ward raised an eyebrow. “I hate to tell you this, rookie, but we don’t have a truth serum.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow and jabbed out with a hand. Interesting. She thought. Whatever you say, Ward.

Skye’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Wha-?”

She was cut off when the comm system of the Bus crackled and Agent May’s voice rang through the plane. “Changing course, briefing in three.”

It was at that moment that Evelyn realized that she had forgotten to relieve her mother from the controls. She knew her mother wouldn’t be upset, but she couldn’t help but grimace at her own stupidity.

“Ah, it looks like we’re on the move.” Fitz commented in an almost sing-song voice.

Fitz-Simmons ran past Evelyn and up the stairs, followed closely by Ward. Skye sulked a little bit and Evelyn chuckled, taking the girl by surprise.

“Don’t worry about Ward, rookie.” Evelyn teased. Skye smiled a bit and Evelyn matched it kindly.

“It’s not that.” Skye dismissed. She seemed to hesitate and Evelyn tilted her head, motioning for Skye to continue. “I don’t know how to get this tape off my hands.”

Evelyn laughed and made a grabby motion towards Skye. “Come here. I’ll show you.”

~+~

Evelyn almost tripped over air when she saw Coulson. He looked so tired that Evelyn could have sworn that he was sick. She breathed out an exhalation of breath and averted her eyes, finding it hard to see Coulson in pain. 

Evelyn tensed and tilted her head. Her mind wasn’t where it should be. As she gazed at Coulson, she couldn’t help but recall a file that she had seen, or, more accurately, a medical report.

She should have been paying attention to the briefing, but Fitz and Simmons hadn’t arrived yet and there was really nothing to pay attention to.

Her gaze travelled down towards Coulson’s heart and she shivered at the thought of what could have happened. What did happen.

“Agent May.” Coulson's voice snapped her back to the present. “Are you listening?”

“Y-yes, sir.” She nodded, her eyes darting back up to meet his gaze. Apparently, he had been talking to the group and Evelyn hadn’t heard him.

She watched as Coulson’s gaze softened with understanding and a smile tugged at the edge of his lips. “I want to speak to you after the briefing,” Coulson ordered. “Meet me in my office.”

Evelyn tipped her head and nodded nervously.

Fitz and Simmons came trotting into the briefing room and collapsed onto the couch together, giggling.

Coulson shook his head and ignored the scientist's actions. “A few minutes ago,” Coulson began the actual brief. “A S.H.I.E.L.D transport was attacked while carrying a priority red protected asset off Route 76 near Sterling.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened. Priority red? Must be some cargo.

Fitz whistled. “Priority red?” He echoed Evelyn’s thoughts.

“The asset was Canadian physicist, Dr. Franklin Hall.” Coulson brought up a picture onto his tablet and showed the group.

Fitz-Simmons looked stricken and worry was etched clearly into their faces.

“Oh, no. Not Frank.” Simmons cried out.

“Dr. Hall? He was our chemical kinetics advisor our second year.” Fitz added solemnly.

“Yeah, he’s so enthusiastic about science, we just adored him. We can rescue him, can’t we?” Simmons begged.

Evelyn’s eyes softened and she smiled comfortingly at Simmons. “He’s one of ours. We got to try.” She looked to Coulson for confirmation and he nodded.

“And the attackers?” Ward questioned, all business, as usual.

“Invisible.” Coulson finished, turning and strolling out of the room, signalling the end of the briefing.

Skye chuckled in disbelief. “Wait, invisible? Cool!”

Ward sighed and crossed his arms, giving Skye an unimpressed glare.

“But terrible!” Skye finished.

Evelyn passed Skye and patted her arm. “Nice save.” She muttered.


	22. The Asset (Chapter 3)

Evelyn breathed deeply before reaching up and knocking on the door to Coulson’s office. The response was almost instant and the door was creaking open as Coulson stepped to the side, making room for Evelyn to enter.

She forced a smile and entered his office with a huff of suppressed laughter. “You know,” She turned to look at Coulson with a humorous glint in her eye. “This reminds me of the time I sat you down in my room and told you I was gay.” She always found it easier to start a serious conversation with a slight bit of humor.

Coulson laughed. “It does feel like that, doesn’t it?” He reached out a hand slowly and when Evelyn didn’t flinch, he rested it on her shoulder. “Don’t worry kiddo, there won’t be as many tears this time, at least I hope so.”

Evelyn could already feel tears welling up in her eyes. She hated crying in front of others, hated admitting that she was weak. She didn’t want to talk to Coulson about what was bothering her.

“You’ve been distant since you got on this plane.” Coulson pointed out. “I thought it was because you were adjusting after what happened and I didn’t want to force myself upon you, but it isn’t, is it?” While he was talking, he made his way towards his desk, Evelyn turning to follow him with her gaze, and picked up something from the desk.

Evelyn bit her lip, a nervous tick that she had developed in the last couple of months. She wanted to just tell Coulson that she was having trouble adjusting, it wouldn’t have been a total lie, but it felt wrong. “No.” She mumbled after a few moments of hesitation.

“So, it’s about me?” He put the thing back down and rounded the desk to come back towards Evelyn.

Evelyn’s mind flashed back to the gruesome picture that had accompanied the medical report and flinched. She nodded her head, tears springing into her eyes. “I-I read about what happened before the alien invasion of New York. About you getting stabbed through the chest with an alien weapon.”

Phil’s eyes softened. “Oh, kiddo, I didn’t want you to know too much about that.”

A tear leaked down her cheek and she inhaled sharply. “You were dead.” She almost whimpered. “You were dead for seconds or minutes.” Evelyn looked up, her eyes bright with tears and she sniffled. “I almost lost you.”

Coulson wrapped his arm around Evelyn and pulled her tightly against his body. Evelyn buried her face into Coulson’s shoulder and barely contained a sob.

“I’m right here, I’m ok.” He soothed.

Evelyn didn’t believe that he was really okay, but the comfort of the hug was enough for her. He was still here, still breathing. She could feel his heartbeat and it was still strong and steady. That was a comforting sign.

They stayed that way for a while, Coulson stroking Evelyn’s hair and Evelyn trying not to soak Phil’s jacket. She sniffled once more and pulled away with a forced chuckle. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“I’m sorry, this is unprofessional.” She whispered.

Coulson merely smiled and shook his head. “Unprofessional is bringing up the fact that I was at your birth.” Evelyn laughed. Leave it to Phil to break a tense moment with humor. “Did I ever tell you that story?”

“Yes.” Evelyn nodded, already feeling better from her little episode. “Many times, but it never gets old.”

“Your mother could have called anyone to pick her up and bring her to the hospital, but she picked me.” Coulson smiled at the memory. “I was three states away in a quin-jet when I got the call and immediately turned it around. It was halfway to the hospital when your mother mentioned that it would be my job to call her parents and let them know.”

Evelyn giggled and pressed herself against Phil once more.

“You were an ugly baby.”

Evelyn pulled away and faked being offended. She punched Coulson lightly in the arm, a goofy smile plastered to her face. “My mom says that you were more nervous than she was.”

Coulson opened his mouth to argue but snapped it shut and shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

“You’ve always been here.” She muttered, more to herself than Coulson.

“And I always will be.” There was a moment's pause before he spoke again. “I guess I was wrong, there were tears involved in this conversation.”

~+~

Evelyn folded herself neatly into the copilot's seat and huffed, half in exhaustion and half in relief. She reached out a hand and flicked the stabilizers. The Bus shuddered under her touch before relaxing and flying smoother than before.

“So, what did you and Phil talk about?” Her mother questioned.

Evelyn turned a questioning gaze on her mother. She hadn’t been at the briefing, so how did she know that Phil talked to her? “We talked about his death experience.”

Evelyn noticed her mother froze for a second but didn’t comment on it. She suspected that her mother wasn’t exactly comfortable discussing the fact that she almost lost one of her oldest friends.

“Oh yeah? You heard about that?”

“There was some chatter over the web about the battle of New York.” Evelyn shrugged. “I asked Maria to send me a copy of the reports and she sent me the medical report for Phil.”

Her mother didn’t reply and Evelyn angled her head to watch as her mother clenched and unclenched her jaws.

“I didn’t hear about it until almost a week after the attack.” She finally sighed. “I tried to call Phil a few times but he didn’t pick up. The only reason that I found out about it was because I filed the paperwork.”

Evelyn couldn’t help but shudder. The thought of almost losing a man that had been in her life forever was difficult to think about. “I’m glad you weren’t there.” She muttered. “That’s about the only time I’ll say that I’m glad you transferred to administration. You would have put yourself into danger without a second thought.”

Melinda scoffed. “I don’t belong in the field.”

“I’m sorry, that is some bull and you know it.” Evelyn shot back. “You taught me everything I know and can take down any enemy. You should be out in the field.”

“Coulson promised me that there would be no combat ops on this assignment and that I was just here to be a pilot.” Melinda fought back. “I’ve already seen more combat than I signed up for. I’m just here to fly the plane.”

“You say that now.” Evelyn felt a smirk growing on her face. “You always find your way back onto the field. Coulson will make sure of it.”

Her mother didn’t reply and Evelyn knew that she had won the argument.

“I thought you were going to be laying off the combat ops for a while.” Her mother pointed out, trying to direct the conversation away from herself.

“Blame Maria.” Evelyn sighed and as an afterthought added, “And Coulson.” She shook her head and laughed sarcastically. “All I needed was a glimpse at the name of the team leader and I was in. Though, I heard he had a little more trouble with you.”

“He came into my office, into my cubicle, and made a stupid joke and suddenly I needed to go.” Her mother sighed. “I’ll always hate him for being the only one who can make me do anything I don’t want to.”

Evelyn laughed. “I thought that was my job!”

“...You’ve spent too much time around Phil.” Her mother glared at her.

“Will you get me a tea?”

“No.”

“Will you please get me a tea?”

“...No…”

“Will you please, please, please get me a-”

“Alright fine! So you can convince me to do anything too!” Her mother threw her hands up in fake exasperation.

Evelyn smirked and leaned back in her chair. She huffed and blew a strand of hair away from her face. “You know, we’ve never been on a combat op together.”

Her mother nodded, suddenly tense. “I know.”

“You transferred before I was out of the academy.” Evelyn pressed her lips into a thin line. “Wouldn’t it be fun to kick ass together? Like partners?”

Her mother hummed but didn’t comment. Evelyn sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning her head against the side of the chair. 

“Alright.” She muttered. “I can take a hint.”


	23. The Asset (Chapter 4)

Evelyn thought that at this moment the team would have looked pretty cool if they were on T.V. They were spread out in a line, doing a hero walk down the road towards the wreckage.

“Dr. Hall was an asset?” Skye piped up from her place beside Ward.

“One of a few select scientists S.H.I.E.L.D has been protecting,” Coulson informed. “People our enemies would love to get their hands on. We keep them hidden, keep them on the move.”

“Which is why Fitz and I were so lucky to have him.” Simmons sighed, clearly torn up about losing Dr. Hall.

“We don’t have him anymore.” Coulson sighed, sharing in Simmons' form of grief.

“And, what does priority red mean?” Skye directed the question towards Evelyn instead of Coulson or Ward.

“It means security should have been…” Evelyn trailed off as the groan of metal reached her ears. She blinked a few times just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. One of the SUV’s that would have been an escort for the main cargo truck was stuck in a tree. “...heavy.”

“Split up, canvas the scene,” Coulson ordered. “Agent May Jr, stick with Agents Fitz and Simmons, Agent Ward, Skye and Agent May will be with me. We’re going to interview the driver.”

Evelyn nodded her head and immediately split off from the group to provide cover for Fitz and Simmons. She wasn’t anticipating an attack, but one could never be too careful.

Usually, Evelyn would have felt left out at being stuck away from the interview, but that was before the enhancements.

Evelyn had acquired a pair of night glasses that were supposed to limit glare while driving at night. She didn’t need them for driving or anything, she just needed something to cover her eyes.

She reached out with her powers and directed her hearing towards the group as they approached the driver, all the while still keeping an eye on Fitz and Simmons.

“It was pretty damn scary, and I don’t spook easily, boss.” The driver sounded rattled.

“Nothing in the air from above?” Agent May asked.

“Nothing over our shoulder,” The driver confirmed before his voice lowered in volume, “But what’s scary is they knew our route. They were waiting for us.”

Evelyn blinked and a cold dread seeped into her body.

“Are you saying they were working with somebody inside S.H.I.E.L.D?” Coulson voiced Evelyn’s fears.

“Sorry to say…it had to be.” The driver confirmed.

Evelyn was snapped out of her powers as Simmons called out, creating a ringing in Evelyn’s ears. She flinched and clenched her jaw against the pain. She snapped her powers back and groaned as her normal hearing took a second to kick in.

“Fitz, what am I seeing here?”

Evelyn lifted her head to watch as Simmons held a metal instrument in her hand and held it out into the air. She was wearing some sort of green goggles that seemed to glow the closer she got to a specific spot with the metal instrument.

“Well, I’m not wearing the full-spectrum goggles I designed, so – no clue.” Fitz countered.

Skye and Ward passed Evelyn to see what had Simmons so stumped. Evelyn was going to follow when her mother stepped in front of her and gave her a stern look.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, confused for a moment. Her mother made a vague gesture to her ears and Evelyn sighed. Of course her mother would be upset with her listening in on the conversation between the driver and the team.

Evelyn shook her head and shouldered her way past her mother to catch up with Skye and Ward.

Fitz had apparently made a joke to Skye and laughed, but when she didn’t laugh he trailed off awkwardly. “Let me have a look, come on.” Fitz muttered to Jemma.

He made a move to reach out to Jemma but she waved a hand and glared at him. “No, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Don’t move!” She examined the road near Fitz’s feet for a moment. “Wait a second.”

She bent down and picked some gravel up off the road and tossed it into the air. The gravel caught in mid-air and began to swirl around each other, creating a tornado look.

“What in the hell?” Skye gasped.

“I think the electro-static field scanner activated some…thing.” Simmons supplied weakly.

Evelyn ducked as the batch of gravel went flying in every direction and took out a few lights as it went. Her eyes widened and she turned a nervous look on Jemma.

“Okay, can we deactivate it? Now?” Coulson asked in a passive-aggressive tone.

Simmons tapped a few buttons on the tablet which caused the gravel to flail around even more violently.

“Have to increase the density.” Fitz pointed out, trying to help.

“I tried, Fitz, but –”

Pieces of gravel were hitting random surfaces of metal and the team was constantly ducking and dodging the flying tiny rocks.

“Fitz!” Agent May scolded.

Fitz grabbed a secondary device and tapped away at it. Suddenly, electricity sparked and the gravel fell to the ground harmlessly.

Simmons bent down with a pair of tweezers and picked up some sort of tiny sphere. She held it up for the group to see.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, trying to see how something so small could cause so much damage. “That did all this?”

Coulson plucked the sphere from the tweezers and examined it closely.

“What is that?” Skye asked.

Evelyn finally got a good look at it and only felt her curiosity growing. It looked like a glass sphere with two rings encircling the outside. Inside, at the center, there was a gray material that seemed to ripple almost like water.

“Something big.” Coulson answered.

~+~

Evelyn was stuck following after her mother. Did she need to be? No. But her mother had requested a ‘talk’ and Evelyn was not going to risk upsetting her mother more.

She was practically dragged into the kitchen by her mother and shoved into a seat at the counter. Her mother groaned in frustration and went rifling through the cupboards to find some tea. Or maybe some scotch.

“What were you thinking?” Her mother sighed in a quiet voice that Evelyn could barely hear.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me!” Melinda snapped. “You’re not seven anymore! You need to look out for yourself!”

“I am!” Evelyn frowned. She knew her mother was upset at her for using her powers to eavesdrop, but she hadn’t put anyone in danger while doing it. “I was watching out for the whole team.”

Her mother rubbed at her face. “You could have been seen!”

Evelyn paused. “I was wearing glasses.”

Her mother sent her a dark glare and Evelyn felt herself shrinking beneath it. “Evelyn, you’re being too reckless.” Her mother sighed. “Don’t do it again. If you want info, I’ll give it to you after the mission.”

Evelyn wanted to argue, wanted to tell her mother that she wasn’t reckless, but she couldn’t. She knew that her mother was right. She was being reckless.

The old Evelyn may have been a risk-taker, but had never been overly reckless with her risks. The new Evelyn wasn’t comfortable with risks. She wasn’t comfortable with much these days. The only way she could create the illusion that she was still the same old Evelyn, was by making reckless decisions that the old Evelyn might have made.

She lowered her gaze and made a sound halfway between a hum and a huff of confirmation that sounded vaguely like ‘yes, ma’am.’

Her mother, seeming satisfied, gave her one last look before abandoning her search for whatever in the cupboards and leaving the kitchen. “Fitz-Simmons are analyzing the thing we found.” She called back. “We should be there.”

~+~

Fitz was playing around with the device they had found when Evelyn entered the lab. Her mother was already there and had already begun to report to Coulson. Skye and Ward were there as well, but Ward was hanging near the back of the lab and Skye was leaning against the table, watching Fitz work.

Evelyn leaned against the door frame, just far enough into the lab that she was immediately incorporated into Coulson and her mom’s talk.

“Either someone cracked our comm system or Dr. Hall’s movements leaked from inside S.H.I.E.L.D.” Coulson’s voice was soft, as if he didn’t want to admit that S.H.I.E.L.D could have a mole.

“You really think we have a mole?” Melinda asked in the same soft tone. It was clear that they didn’t want to speak too loudly, but Evelyn noticed that Skye perked up and angled her head slightly towards them.

“I think you should go through the communication logs, rule it out.” Coulson sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’ll work the tractor tread that we found on the scene.”

Skye jumped up, eager to help. “I can do that, instead of pull-ups. I can upload an image of the tread pattern and check to see if there’s any sort of –”

Ward cut her off. “Already done. Matched it to a 2010 model. Found a list of purchasers within a 500-mile radius. Narrowed down to those with priors, financial troubles or propensity for risk-taking.” Ward held up a tablet and pointed to three different mugshots. “Three suspects.”

“Who may have sold their construction equipment to the kidnappers. We’ll ask.” Coulson nodded his head.

Ward left the room, most likely to get ready to leave and Skye approached Coulson and Evelyn as Melinda wandered away. “Hey, so, Ward said a funny thing.” Skye’s voice held humor, but she had a tight smile on her face. “He said that you guys don’t have a truth serum.”

Coulson smiled. “Did he? Ward said that?”

“Yeah.”

“Interesting.”

“Yeah.”

Coulson said nothing and began to walk away, though Evelyn caught the fond smile on his face.

“Hey, wait –” Skye protested, but she was cut off by Melinda.

“Hey.” Melinda dropped a giant binder into Skye’s arms and Evelyn frowned and tilted her head.

“Do you want me to bench press this?” Skye quipped.

“Read it. Every communication out of HQ since they decided to transfer Dr. Hall.” Melinda turned and stalked away leaving behind a shocked Skye and a frowning Evelyn.

“Hang in there, doc. It’s gonna be a while.” Skye sighed heavily.


	24. The Asset (Chapter 5)

Evelyn sat down on the couch out in the lounge and brought the bottle of water to her lips. She sighed and leaned back, resting the hundreds of pieces of paper on her lap.

“What are those?” A voice caused Evelyn to jump and a few of the papers slid off her lap and onto the ground.

She hissed a curse and leaned down to pick them up, only to have them already being handed back to her. The person hesitated when Evelyn tried to take them from her grasp and Evelyn gulped nervously.

“These… these are really good.” Skye had finished reading one of the short poems and turned a disbelieving eye on Evelyn.

“Yeah, well, believe it or not, it’s easy to come up with ‘fantasy’ to write about when it actually happens in real life.”

“You write about your missions?” Skye blinked, a curious glint in her eyes.

“I write short stories, write poems, and put them all into a little binder, never to be read again.”

“Then… why do you write them?” Skye plopped herself down on the couch and blinked innocently at Evelyn. “You have real talent, but if nobody is ever going to read them, why write them at all?"

“Because It’s fun.” Evelyn lied. She had always written about her missions, recounted them all in her own words. She usually used writing as a way to cope with what she had seen. As soon as she got back after that year, she had bought an entirely new notebook and written everything, day by day, that she could remember from her time there.

Andrew had told her it was a good way to cope if she wasn’t ready to talk about it. So, she never talked about it. Every so often she would go to her session with a new section for Andrew to read and he went from there.

It was easier that way.

“Evelyn,” Skye’s tone was serious and Evelyn began to dread what she wanted to ask. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

Evelyn hesitated. A part of her wanted to say no, she knew Skye wouldn’t push if she did, but the stronger part of her was curious what Skye wanted to know. “Yes.”

“Ward told me about how every agent experiences a defining moment,” Skye muttered, nursing her drink. “What was yours?”

Evelyn paused, her water halfway to her mouth. She sighed and leaned forward to rest her arms on her lap. “Every agent has a moment, sometimes you don’t realize that the moment was the moment until later.” She bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment. “My moment came before I was even an agent. Before I was even in the academy. I was… 14 at the time, living with my mom and Andrew, looking to be accepted into the operations academy of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

“My mom was on a mission and I was left home with Andrew. Some thugs came to our house, broke in with guns and went straight for Andrew. Apparently they were hired to kill my mom, but they only found us.” Evelyn took a long sip from her drink and grimaced against the lump forming as it went down her throat. “I, uh, I took a bullet. Jumped right in front of it to save Andrew. At that moment, something snapped. I don’t remember how, but when I came to my senses a few moments later, all four of the thugs were dead. Andrew tells it that I stole the gun from the first thug and shot all of them, before they had a chance to react. I don’t know what really happened that day.”

Evelyn avoided Skye’s eyes, afraid of the fear that she would find there. After all, what kind of teenager killed 4 men? “That was my moment, when I realized that it was kill or be killed, that I dedicated my life to S.H.I.E.L.D. There was no going back after that.”

Evelyn almost jumped when a hand was placed on her shoulder. Her gaze snapped up to meet the milk chocolate eyes of Skye. She was surprised when she didn’t find any fear or disgust reflected in those pools, but understanding and… pity.

“You were 14?”

Evelyn nodded solemnly. “The next year I transferred from my highschool to the S.H.I.E.L.D academy.

“At 15!?”

“They usually take you when you're older, not many get taken in their early teens.”

Skye sighed heavily and Evelyn began to dread what she could possibly be thinking about. “What happened?”

Evelyn flinched but tried to play it off as her just shifting her weight. She deflected the question easily. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, Fitz-Simmons told me a story about when they first met you.” Skye looked nervous and Evelyn couldn’t blame her. “They told me about a young girl, 17 years old, top of her class, and ready for the world. They said she had just a positive outlook on life. So, what happened.”

“17 year old me hadn’t seen the real world yet, hadn’t seen how bad it could be.” Evelyn provided a half-truth. “I’ve seen and done things since I left the S.H.I.E.L.D academy and I’ve grown up.”

“If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?”

Don’t go on that mission. “Be nicer to your mother.”

Skye narrowed her eyes and Evelyn knew that she could tell she was lying. But Skye didn’t say anything. Instead, her mouth lifted into a grin and her eyes twinkled with laughter. “Must have been hard having Agent May for a mother.”

“Nah,” Evelyn shrugged. “I gave her more hell than she gave me.”

“You were a rebel?”

“I was a closeted gay until I was almost 17 with a high level of espionage skills, so yes, I was a rebel.”

Skye laughed and soon Evelyn found herself laughing. It was a nice feeling, to have someone she could be so open with. There were of course things that Evelyn wouldn’t tell Skye, couldn’t tell Skye, but those didn’t matter. What mattered was that she felt safe.

“Skye, Evelyn,” As if on cue, Melinda’s voice interrupted any more conversation. “Coulson and Ward are back. They want everyone in the lab.”

~+~

Evelyn was leaned against a table, her head tilted slightly to the side in thought and her elbows supporting most of her weight. Not that there was much to support. She was still underweight and malnourished from her time away.

“So, whoever kidnapped Dr. Hall, paid this cowboy with gold?” Evelyn questioned, making sure she had the story straight. “Then they used his giant excavator to rip open the back of a semi-truck and kidnap a S.H.I.E.L.D agent?”

“It’s not pure gold.” Simmons piped up from another desk, where she had been analyzing the bars of gold. “It looks like this because it’s a Dore Bar. It means it was made at the mine rather than the refinery. It’s only about 92% gold. The cowboy got cheated a little bit.”

Evelyn was having a hard time feeling sorry for the cowboy.

“Can you determine the mine based on the impurities?” Coulson asked.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve done that already.” Fitz fled towards his tablet and tapped the screen a few times before transferring it to the main screen on the wall. “It’s from the Dacey Mine in Tanzania, which is owned by-”

“Quinn Worldwide.” Evelyn sighed upon seeing the name at the bottom of the screen.

“I’m sure you studied the CEO in your chemical engineering classes, or saw him on the cover of Forbes – Ian Quinn.” Coulson shook his head and left the room.

Great. Now the team had to deal with a man who was definitely not a friend to S.H.I.E.L.D.


	25. The Asset (Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by the author having a horrendous update schedule.

Fitz had done some more research into Ian Quinn and Dr. Hall to figure out what the former could want with the latter. He pulled up a diagram of an atom that Evelyn had seen before.

“Gravitonium. It’s an extremely rare high-atomic numbered element.” Fitz pointed to the atom and the picture shifted to show what the material would look like in real life.

Evelyn noticed that it was the same material that was inside of the device the team had found on the road.

“It powers the device,” Simmons confirmed Evelyn’s theory. “It’s so extremely rare that most people didn’t believe it existed, much less the theory that an isolated positive charge –”

Evelyn blinked, slowly becoming lost.

“Would turn the flow from isotropic –” Fitz continued for Simmons.

Skye held up a hand to stop the scientists. “Guys, High School drop out here.”

Evelyn held up her own hand. “And a woman who did not really enjoy high school or S.H.I.E.L.D academy science. How does the device work again?”

Fitz shared a look with Jemma and she grinned. She jumped up from her seat and walked over to point at the picture of the atom. Evelyn couldn’t help but think that she looked very similar to her 8th-grade science teacher.

“Well, Gravitonium distorts gravity fields within itself, causing an undulating amorphous shape.” She pointed to the outside of the material.

“Yeah, which causes these, um, wiggly bits here,” He pointed to the center of the atom, which was wiggling and pulsing. “But when an electric current is applied, the Gravitonium solidifies. And those gravity fields erupt,” He shook his hands and then blew them apart. “Randomly changing the rules of gravity around it.”

Evelyn thought she understood what Fitz and Simmons were trying to explain. The only part that she really needed to know was that the atom could change the forces of gravity whenever it wanted. And in the hands of someone like Ian Quinn, that was a very bad thing.

“Well, so, now you can imagine what would happen to a big rig at 100 kilometers per hour.” Fitz pointed out, referencing the semi-truck from before. He walked back over to his work station, obviously his favourite spot on the plane. “Or, uh, well, you could just remember, cause we saw it already. Didn’t we?”

“Yeah, and guess which genius published every theory about Gravitonium and possible applications, years ago?” Simmons asked, smiling brightly.

“Dr. Franklin Hall.” Skye sighed, seeming to finally understand that Gravitonium was bad.

“Correct.” Fitz pointed at Skye with one finger. “And Dr. Hall attended the University of Cambridge at the same time as Ian Quinn.” 

Skye shook her head and crossed her arms. “Coulson may be off on this. Quinn is a notoriously good guy. His charity endowment’s something like $8 billion.”

“Yes, with money made from leeching the Earth of its resources.” Simmons sighed, her smile fading from her lips. “Looks like he’s dug up another.”

“And it looks like in the last few years of Quinn’s lifestyle of spending money on things nobody could ever need, he bought 12 mines on 6 different continents.” Evelyn sighed. “He really wanted to get his hands on this Gravitonium.”

~+~

Once again, Evelyn had gravitated to the back of the room while the team crowded into the conference room. 

“The man’s a prisoner, and it’s up to us to get him out.” Coulson pointed out needlessly.

“We’ve checked the specs. There’s no way into Quinn’s compound without a large S.H.I.E.L.D. strike force or a man inside.” Ward sighed, clearly frustrated. “He’s got Neodymium laser fencing surrounding the property.”

Coulson shook his head and sighed heavily. “They’ll never allow a strike force into Malta. Plus, this weekend, Quinn Worldwide’s got its annual shareholders gathering. We’d risk global outrage, but –”

“If we go in alone –” May pointed out, her signature disapproving expression plastered to her face.

“S.H.I.E.L.D can disavow us, claim ignorance.” Coulson finished.

“Without a man inside it’s impossible, unless you’re immune to Neodymium laser emissions.” Evelyn piped up, pushing herself from the wall to step into the group.

Fitz perked up and Evelyn turned a questioning look on the scientist. “If we had a monkey, we could get in.” He pointed out, completely serious.

Simmons squeezed her eyes shut and groaned in frustration. “Ugh, Fitz!”

“If we had a small monkey he could slip through the sensors and disable the fence’s power source with his adorable little hands.” Fitz pushed.

Evelyn found her gaze being drawn to Skye who was not paying attention to the meeting at all. She had her phone close to her face and was busy tapping away.

She didn’t even look up when she spoke. “I could go in.”

Evelyn tilted her head in curiosity but nobody else seemed to hear the hacker.

“Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta. I’ll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gathering intel –” Ward suggested.

“Hall doesn’t have a few weeks.” Evelyn reminded.

“And to restate,” Jemma held up a hand. “Any agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets - Legally.”

Skye pushed herself off the wall to stand straight. “Not me. I could go in.”

Evelyn narrowed her gaze, slowly picking up on what the hacker meant.

“Skye, this is serious.” Ward started but Coulson interrupted him.

“Wait,” He walked towards her. “What are you saying?”

“Well, I’m not an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, so I could go in without breaking all these stupid rules.” Skye brought her phone back up towards her face and continued typing.

“International laws.” Simmons chided.

“This isn’t something the Rising Tide can hack, Skye.” Ward shook his head.

“Did you hear the deadly lasers part?” Fitz once again chimed in. “Without a brave monkey –”

“You said you could go in with a man inside.”

“And you want to be that man?” Melinda questioned in her normal monotone voice.

“Fitz-Simmons loved the guy, and he needs help. They could be torturing him, or worse, making him do strength-training.” She shot a pointed look at Ward before going back to her phone.

“But you don’t have the background or clearance or experience with any of this.” Ward pointed out, his eyes narrowed in thought.

“I know.” Skye shrugged and held up her phone, turning the screen to face the team. “But I’ve got an invitation.”

Evelyn was impressed with Skye’s ability to get anything she could ever need through the phone.

“Well, technically it’s an e-vite.”

“That’s dangerous, Skye.” Ward protested. “You’re not trained, you could be killed.”

Evelyn hummed in thought. “What if I went with her?” She spoke up after a moment, catching the attention of the team. “I have a few covers I could use.”

“That’s really not necessary.” Skye protested although it was a lost cause.

“You’d have to be the one to do the job, because I can’t really do anything.” Evelyn pointed out. “But I can be there to make sure that you don’t get killed before then.”

“I thought you said that a S.H.I.E.L.D agent couldn’t go in.” Skye raised an eyebrow.

“I won’t be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. And with a person on the guest list to vouch for me, I’ll get in no problem.” Evelyn shrugged. "Besides, officially I'm still on leave from S.H.I.E.L.D."

“Who would you be? A traveller from Canada?” Skye asked, mockingly.

“I could be your protege. Newly immigrated and not very good at speaking English.” Evelyn supplied, digging around in her mind for a suitable persona. “You could be teaching me how to be a good hacker.”

“You do realize that if you get caught, S.H.I.E.L.D will abandon you.” Coulson interjected.

“Then I won’t get caught.” Evelyn gained a cocky tone. “I’ll be at a party, I won’t do anything stupid.”

“Good.” Coulson interrupted any more arguments. “Evelyn, work with Fitz and Skye to make a suitable ID.”

“Not necessary, Coulson, sir.” Evelyn shook her head. “I already have an ID I can use.”

“Alright. We land in two hours, be ready.”

~+~

Evelyn was idly following Ward and Coulson around the plane and up into Coulson’s office. She was just waiting for the inevitable speech about safety and procedures that she had heard thousands of times. 

She was really starting to regret her decision to go undercover with Skye. She wasn’t questioning or doubting her own skills, or even Skye’s skills, she just didn’t have enough information.

“I understand your concern, but we don’t have a lot of options.” Coulson was saying as he dug through his closet, rifling through dozens of suits that all looked the same.

Apparently Ward had voiced his own concerns about the mission.

“Hey, I’m impressed.” Ward excused. “She just wrangled an invitation on her phone using insider back-channel voodoo in minutes. But sending her in with no training? You’re taking a huge risk.”

While Ward was speaking Coulson was examining his suit choice. Evelyn thought it looked exactly like the one he was already wearing but she would never say that out loud. He turned to take it deeper into his room and Ward and Evelyn followed.

“I know Director Fury felt he owed you after you sacrificed yourself.” Ward continued.

“And my card collection.” Coulson cut in.

Evelyn smirked, a light laughter building in her chest.

“He gave you some autonomy,” Ward agreed. “But Skye on a covert op?”

“Are you worried about her safety or her loyalty?” Evelyn questioned. She had her own concerns and reasons for going in, but she wasn’t too keen on sharing them with Ward.

“Both. The Rising Tide is the reason she got an invite. Who knows how many protocols she violated.” Ward pointed out.

Evelyn had to admit that he made a few good points.

Coulson hung the suit on the back of a chair and turned to address Ward. “That's her job.” He pointed out. “Ignore protocol, find connections and back doors that nobody else can see.” There was a moment of silence before Coulson spoke again. “Something else is bothering you.”

Ward sighed and walked away a few paces. “She’s holding back, sir. She says she wants to be an agent, but she won’t commit. She doesn’t listen, makes jokes.”

“Were you hard on her?” Coulson raised an eyebrow.

“Sure.” Ward shrugged. “I tried playing nice, too. I need a new strategy.”

Evelyn scoffed and stepped forward to stare Ward in the eyes. “Try no strategy.” She huffed. “Stop thinking like an operative, start thinking like a person. Maybe Skye will let that person help her.”

“Help her what?”

“Help her think like an operative.” Coulson stepped away from his desk to address Ward.


	26. The Asset (Chapter 7)

Evelyn preferred to be alone. Just over a year ago she would have said that it was one of her biggest fears. She hated not having people around her. The time she had spent with her mother and Coulson since the incident was hard. She didn’t feel like herself. It felt like she was putting on an act.

Before the incident, Evelyn treasured every hug she received from her mother, because they were quite rare. Now, she dreaded whenever her mother got too close. It was a horrible feeling, to be scared of her own mother, but she couldn’t help it.

Every hug or touch that used to make her feel so safe now made her feel as if she was suffocating.

But she had to power through it, act like nothing was wrong. She was supposed to be an impenetrable specialist. Someone who could stash away their emotions and make the hard call. What made her sick, was the fact that the hard call was easier now, because she could no longer feel.

She still had her emotions, of course, but she had learned to block them out. Because, if she could feel all her emotions, she would just shut down.

Evelyn took a deep breath, pulling forth every memory of her old self that she could and forced her other emotions down.

She needed to be the Evelyn that cracked jokes and used sarcasm during tense moments. Because if she wasn’t that person any more, then who was she?

She leaned over the railing above the garage and watched Skye and Ward training. It was an easy move, meant to disarm an opponent if they pointed a gun at you. Evelyn had lost track of how many times that move had saved her life.

Ward was pointing a fake gun at Skye, holding it directly in front of him. “Now again, slowly, what’s first?” He asked.

Skye grabbed Ward’s wrist and twisted herself so that Ward’s gun arm was over her shoulder and her back was against his chest.

Evelyn was impressed by the fluidity of the movement, although it still had a long way to go.

“And then?” Ward prompted when Skye didn’t move.

“Then?” Skye gained a grin and her voice adopted a southern accent. “Things are moving too quickly. I’m a proper southern girl, you’ll make me untidy.”

Evelyn sighed. Humor was Skye’s biggest defence, Evelyn had noticed that almost immediately. Skye reminded Evelyn of herself when she was still fresh out of the academy.

Ward dropped his head in frustration before taking Skye’s other hand and placing it on top of his that was holding the gun. “Twist the thumb, palm the barrel.” He sighed before ripping the gun from her grip and walking away.

“Ow.” Evelyn heard Skye whimper under her breath.

The move could be quite painful to the user if not done right, Evelyn had learned that from her mother pretty quickly.

“You’re gonna die and leave us hanging out to dry, you know that?” Ward scolded and Evelyn couldn’t help but feel a little bad for Skye. “You’re going in with no self-defense skills –”

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve - and Evelyn.” Skye argued.

“Evelyn can’t always protect you!” Ward growled. “You need muscle memory, fundamentals, the tools to turn yourself –”

“Into a whole bag of tools?” Skye quipped.

“How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?” Ward reasoned, trying visibly to keep ahold of the little bit of control he had left.

“C.S. comes naturally to me.” Skye motioned vaguely towards Ward. “I’m sorry I’m not naturally whatever you are.”

Evelyn tensed as Ward took a dangerous step forward and for a moment, Evelyn thought Ward might strike Skye.

“You think this came naturally?” He growled, towering over Skye with a sharp glint in his eyes. “I had a brother who beat the crap out of me, me and my little brother, for nothing. For eating a piece of his birthday cake. I had to learn to protect us, the way I am trying to protect you.”

Evelyn frowned. She had seen Ward’s file of course, but there hadn’t been much mention of any brother or family for that matter. 

“That was my moment.” Ward’s shoulders slumped forward. “You asked.”

For once, Skye didn’t have any quip or response ready. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to push.”

There was a moment of complete silence between the two. However, before the silence could become too awkward, Skye held up the gun and waggled it in the air with a shy smile.

“But I did manage to take this.”

Ward didn’t look too impressed and snatched the gun from Skye’s grasp. “Getting the gun is one thing. Pulling the trigger, that is another.” He pointed the gun at Skye’s chest once more. “Now again, slowly, what’s first?”

~+~

Evelyn once again was leaning against the glass wall of the conference room as the team discussed the plan in great detail.

“Skye and Evelyn will walk in the front door.” Coulson was pointing at a map of Quinn’s complex. “The only external access point to Quinn’s underground facility is from a beach cove. A two-man extraction team could slip in there, but it’s not easy. Fitz-Simmons.”

Fitz walked towards the screen and pulled up a certain section of the outside barriers. “The perimeter is surrounded by a 20-foot high neodymium laser grid. Touch it and you’re toast.”

“Dead toast.” Coulson clarified needlessly. “The only way to disable the grid is to crack the system and trigger a reboot. This would give the team three seconds to cross. Of course, Quinn’s too smart to allow any wireless access on his property.”

“That’s where I come in.” Skye piped up.

Simmons opened a box and removed what looked to Evelyn to be a makeup container. She held the compact out to Skye. “Yes, working compact – holds up under x-ray.” She explained.

Fitz opened the compact and showed the inside. “Desert Rose, to match your complexion.” He pointed out. “But, oh, what’s this?” The mirror lit up with five little red dots on the side. “A readout, okay?” The lights switched sides and lit up green.

“Turns green if you’re in close enough proximity to a computer to gain wireless access.” Evelyn muttered in a soft voice that seemed to travel across the room.

“When it does you just drop this nearby and walk out. We’ll do the rest. Easy as pie.” Simmons smiled.

“Or it will be, if you stick to the plan.” Ward narrowed his eyes. He cocked a gun, causing a distinct click to echo around the room.

“Got it.” Skye nodded. “Plan, green, drop, walk…pie.”

Fitz handed the compact to Skye and Evelyn watched as her mother and Coulson left the conference briefly.

It wasn’t hard from her position to hear what they were talking about, even without her super hearing. 

“I don’t want to question your orders, sir.” Melinda pointed out.

“Good.” Coulson replied simply.

“But, I’ve already seen far more combat than I bargained for.” Melinda continued. “This two-man extraction team? It’s exactly the kind of action I was hoping to avoid.”

Coulson turned to face her. “That’s why you’re not on it.”

Melinda gave him a disbelieving look. “Specialist work is different from field work, believe me. When was the last time you –”

Evelyn blinked. Coulson was planning to be on the extraction team? She could just see that ending horribly.

“Hall’s one of ours and he’s in trouble.” Coulson pointed out, adopting his ordering voice. “I need two men to get him out. Ward makes one.”

There was a long moment where the two just stared at each other and Evelyn was shocked when her mother was the first to shift her eyes.

“So that’s why I’m going in. You forget, I saw plenty of action with The Avengers.” Coulson smirked and turned to walk away.

“And you died.” Melinda and Evelyn muttered under their breath at the same time.

“All right team, suit up!”


End file.
